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The Voyage 



of Ithobal 



.BY / 

Sir EDWIN ARNOLD 

M.A., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S. 

Author of **The Light of Asia," "The Light of the World," etc. 



ILLUSTRATIONS BY ARTHUR LUMLEY 



> > ' » 

> > 

> > 



,,. >,> 



NEW YORK 

G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY 

LONDON 

JOHN MURRAY 

1901 






THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copiea Received 

SEP. 6 1901 

^ COPVRIQHT ENTBY 

(6LASS<\»XXa N* 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1901, by 
G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY 



[_Ail rights reserved'^ 



Press of J. J. Little & Co. 
Astor Place, New York 



ZhiB IDolume 

IS DEDICATED TO HIS FRIEND 

Major JAMES B. POND 

BY THE ATTACHED AND GRATEFUL 
AUTHOR 



. . . Libya shows itself to be surrounded by water, 
except so much of it as borders upon Asia. Neco, king of 
Egypt, was the first we know of, that proved this: he, when 
he had ceased digging the canal leading from the Nile to the 
Arabian Gulf, sent certain Phoenicians in ships," with orders 
to sail back through the Pillars of Hercules, into the Northern 
Sea, and so return to Egypt. The Phcenicians accordingly, 
setting out from the Red Sea, navigated the Southern Sea; 
when autumn came, they went ashore and sowed the land, by 
whatever part of Libya they happened to be sailing, and 
waited for the harvest; and having reaped the corn, they put 
to sea again. When two years had thus passed, in the third, 
having doubled the Pillars of Hercules, they arrived in Egypt, 
and related what to me does not seem credible, but may to 
others, that as they sailed round Libya, they had the sun 
on their right hand. Thus was Libya first known.— Herodo- 
tus : Melpomene, 42. 



:[6]: 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Ithobal ......... Frontispiece 

But Nesta bent upon me those dark eyes, 

Deep as the sea, and spake, "This is for thee, 

Ithobal, son of Magon, lord and lover. 

The gods do bring thy heart and wish in one. 

Rise and make parley with these men of Nile ; 

It is thy work, and I shall help thy work ; 

Thou art the man they seek." And while she spake 

The silver dove of Ishtar fluttered in, 



THE FIRST DAY facing 

PAGE 

Ithobal before Pharaoh 25 

Satisfied, resolute, stained by the Sun, 
Telleth to Pharaoh what things he hath done ; 



THE SECOND DAY 
The Ships 53 

Then, mighty Pharaoh ! thou didst answer me, 
" Build me those ships on these my waters here ; 
Build at what cost thou wilt to make them stout," 

THE THIRD DAY 
The Forest 83 

Bold in the sunshine. There four-handed folk, 
Monkey, and ape, and marmoset, long-tailed, 
Fur-bonneted, black-maned, with mocking eyes, 

[7] 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



THE FOURTH DAY facing 

PAGE 

The Vision 115 

I fell to slumber in that cavern, King ! 
And had strange visions. In my sleep I saw 
A Queen of stately stature, dark of hue : 
Dark, but most comely : oh ! a form and face 
Exceeding beautiful ; 



THE FIFTH DAY 
The Battle and Delivery 145 

Our foemen hear and fly. First of the host 
A youth chieftain, clad in pelt of pard. 
Whose mounture is a striped horse of the wilds 
Caparisoned in gold, rides nobly forth. 

THE SIXTH DAY 
Nesta by the Camp-fires 175 

The watch-fires gleaming back from the green eyes 
That showed and shone and vanished, Nesta raised 
Her eyelids from what seemed a dream, and asked : — 
" Know'st thou, my Master ! what the lions say ? " 

THE SEVENTH DAY 
Victory 205 

No more unknown. Ithobal's ships have sailed 
Around all Africa. Our task is done ! 



:[8]: 



ALLEGORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS 



The Mummied Dead Frontispiece, 

FACING PAGE 

Egypt 24 

Manhood and Free Waves 33 

The Departed Spirit 65 

Peace or War 114 

The Harvest 144 

The Prophecy 174 

Love's Triumph 204 



^[9]: 



TEXT ILLUSTRATIONS 



On Ishtar's altar ; when a silver dove — . 

a finish to my picture on the stone 

Also at parting there was sacrifice 

Or barter with the wild-eyed villagers 

A flock of sea-fowl seated wide and far . 

This is the white horned beast of Africa . 

" There is thy shore — and mine ! " 

Till both were pleased and both went full away 

There four-handed folk 

Here huge scaled crocodiles drowse in the sun 
Then the wild people shouted loud, " Peace ! peace ! ' 
Behind us, gambolled dolphins, glossy-black 
We mounted — three canoes — the splendid stream 
Sendeth him with a knot of trusty ones . 
Where but one man could pass ; and those strait 

ways 

Westward beneath a flat-topped mount, then turns 
Myself i seized the steering oar and held . 
Hollow as is a temple-court, with halls . 
Ugly and dreadful, in his strength most fierce 
Nesta was by my side 

[ lo 3 — 



PAGE 
29 

39 
51 
69 

73 

78 

88 

92 

102 

118 

121 

126 

153 
161 

172 
179 
185 

193 
211 

218 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword 13 

First Day 25 

Second Day 53 

Third Day . = 83 

Fourth Day -115 

Fifth Day 145 

Sixth Day 175 

Seventh Day 205 



:[II]: 



The Voyage of Ithobal 



(IN THE MUSEUM) 



ALF in earnest, and half in play, 

We talked, by the mummied Dead, that 
day. 

Noting the bones of the catalogued Pharaohs, 
Princes and Scribes of a world far away; 

Priests, with their lean brown bodies a-row. 

In Egypt embalmed many ages ago ; 

Waiting their souls, — which did never reclaim 

them. 

What kept ye belated, Souls? Make us know! 

[ 13 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

But, under the glass, at the gallery's end. 
Two gilded coffers our converse suspend, 

A dark, sweet, high-bred visage of Egypt 
Limned on the cedar : Inside, at bend 

Of elbow — armlets with scarabs and gold. 
Gold rings on the delicate fingers, and fold 

Of linen on linen, stained blue and purple, 
Binding dried bosom. A comb did hold — 

A comb of coral — the rusted tress 
Laid, in a braid of lost loveliness. 

On shapely brow and mouldered temple 
Of the stately, holy, and proud Princess; 

For the name of that Lady was plain to view — 

Nesta, the Priestess of Amen-Ru — 

And Gods and Kas had been set to guard her 

Asleep, while the slow-footed years crept through. 

[ 14 ] 



FOREWORD 



Bright were those eyes once — starry bright, 
Whose beauty gone was mocked by the light 
Of agate and nacre — embalmer's symbols 
For lustre departed. Oh ! of her right 

Royal or high-blooded : a cartouche set 
Gives sign of the household of Hapshepket, 
And, over the heart-spot, you see a tablet 
From the '' Book of the Dead " inscribed " Now let 

" No hindrance come to my Judgment-Hour, 
Nor Mut be stern, nor the Measurer's power; 

In the balance of Thoth, when my heart is lying, 
May Amibis have me in grace! " A Flower 

Of Nile's best gardens, no doubt ! Beneath 
The second chest showed us a painted wreath 
Of ships and sailors, and strange sea-monsters, 

And rocks that rise, and waves that seethe 

[ 15 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Round some high soul to Amenti fled : 
And the hieroglyphs for the style of the dead 

Ran Ethbaal, the son of Magon, blended 
'Mid boats and rowers, and Gods, with head 

Of ibis, or lion, or jackal, or ape : 

Yet ever, and foremost, recurred the shape 

Of Kneph with the ram's horns, Kneph the 
Master 
Of Storms and of Seas, and the Southward Cape 

Where all Seas finish. " Certcs," I said ; 
" Some Man of Phoenicia ! a Mariner, led 

By fate, or love, or venture, to Egypt 
In the old, old times; and they claimed him dead. 

" Ask if in life they did meet, as in death ; 

Find out. Dear, what that hidden sign saith; 

Sometimes you tell me of things we behold not. 

Life beyond living, speech subtler than breath." 

[ 16 ] — 



FOREWORD 



She laughed. But quickly her laughter died; 
Her brown eyes misted, though fixed and wide ; 

Through all her body ran tender tremors, 
Silent and rigid she pressed to my side. 

Presently, '' Yes ! " she sighed, '' I have willed ! 
The place with the Presences is filled! 

I have seen that Lady ! Ah ! how she loved him ! 
Nesta of Sais : you would have thrilled 

" At beauty so rich and bold and splendid 

(Well might he worship !) 'Twas done and ended 

Twenty-five centuries back — yon Hodo 
To say to me this from his shelf descended : 

*' /, Hodo — scribe — at Pharaoh's bidding, penned 

Dread tales, from their beginning to their close 

Out of the mouth of Ithobal of Tyre, 

Chief Captain of the sea, zvho, by strange zvays. 

Saw the Dark World, and went and came. He spake 

[ 17 3 



r H E VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

In Phenku, on his face before the King: — 
(With whom be peace, and health and length of days!) 
On slabs of stone I wrote it — month of Bui — 
Ninth year of Neko. May the Lord of Kings 
Show mercy, and forgive this scribe his faults! 

" Do you hear? — He wrote, by the King's desire 
From Hps of Ethbaal, famous in Tyre — 

The chief Sea-Captain — a marvellous story 
Of ships which sailed thro' tempest and fire, 

" And darkness and perils, and nether dread 
To lands and waters where none had sped : 
To Libya's Horn — Ah ! here is another 
Who will not be still, till his story is said : 

" A learned one that must speak with me, 

Reader in Pharaoh's Court was he, 

Who knew the tongues and wrote the Scriptures, 

And this, he doth urge, must imparted be. 

[ 18 ] 



FORE WO RD 



'' I, Tchat-Kcnsu, Reciter to the King, 
Read Hodo's stones, and did them into script 
By order of the King, that he anight hear, 
Again, and yet again, at resting hours, 
The wonders of that sailing of the seas; 
Also, that men to come, finding new zvorlds 
And, haply, learning more the ways of Gods, 
Bear themselves humble, being 'ware that deeds 
Greater than theirs were wrought in days before. 

*' Have you heard ? This sage one — this Tchat- 

Kensu 
Lord of the Records and bidden thereto — 
Tells how he pictured that story of Hodo 
In hieroglyphs. He says, / rue 

" My lost scrolls more than my life, which is nought. 

For this zvas the mightiest marvel zvrought 

On all the waters, from World's beginning 

Till the earth and the sea shall end." Methought 

[ 19 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

To ask of Ithobal — '' Nay ! " she replied, 

*' They are gone ! He, too, the man, dark-eyed. 

Terrible, noble, in Tyrian garments, 
With the great sword girded upon his side. 

" Yet Nesta lingers, and seems would sing : 
Strange I can follow this ancient thing! 
Nesta of Sa'is — shaking her sistrum — 
Chanting the tale of the ships of the King. 

" I think she would tell us how Ithobal stood 
At Pharaoh's feet in his goodlihood ; 

The brown crews kneeling around, the people 
Open-eyed, wide-mouthed, in earnest mood 

*' To catch those words of the wonderful sailing 
When, danger with daring countervailing 

All round that land of the nethermost darkness. 
This Captain of Tyre came back prevailing." 

[ 20 ] 



FOREWORD 



(A Voice is heard) 

" Sais, City of Neith, 

Flickered and danced in the glare: 

Danced in the blazing gold of the noon; 

Temples and gatezvays and trees y 

Like unto Temple-girls did these 

Dance for the glory of Neith; 

Golden and green and white and hroivn, 

So did the houses and groves and town, 

Walls, roofs, windozv-bars, up and down 

Dance for the glory of Neith. 

Shadozi's danced on the glass of the lake, 

Palm-fans danced in the fluttering air, 

All for the Lighfs szvect sake; 

For the Goddess, mighty and glad and fair, 

Who makes for her people the golden day 

And the dear delight of the sun-warmed air. 

Twenty-five centuries back. — 

Ah, can you listen to zvhat I sayF — 
=[ 21 ] — 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Egypt under the sunshine lay, 
Basking in gold and black. 

" Neko was Pharaoh the King. 
Ruler of Nile and its lands, 
Lord of River and fields. 
Holding the World in his hands. 

" Crowded is Pharaoh's hall; 
Columns painted and tall, 

Cut from the rosy stones of Nile, 
Lead to the scidpttired zvall; 
Where the Lord of Egypt throned in state 
With glad and gracious ear doth zvait 
To hear what story his ships have brought 
From the great deed zvrought 
By him who sailed at the King's command 
To the Dark and Dread of the Nether Land, 
And hath come alive from those realms of death. 
* We will hear, we will hear, what he saith * 

[ 22 ] 



FOREWORD 



Hath issued decree, and the King doth sit 

To listen to all the marvel of it, 

With Princes and priests and slaves about, 

And of sailors and negroes a rout; 

Yet all eyes bound 

Not upon Pharaoh's face, hut his 

Who in the midst of this. 

His brown crezv kneeling anigh, recites, 

While Hodo the writer writes 

How he hath come and how he did go 

By zvays on the waters which none did know, 

" Who is this that is standing. 

Greater than Pharaoh is great, 

Wearing no robe of state. 

But lordly, large, and commanding; 

And in his eyes the Hre 

Of the Hawk of Horus, when out of the cloud 

He stoops, and his hot desire 

Is quenched in the flesh of the quarry slain, 

==.[ 23 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I "T H O B A L 

And the hold bird glides again 

Back to his niche in the temple wall ? 

Ithobal in that hall 

Satisfied, resolute, stained by the Sun, 

Telleth to Pharaoh what things he hath done; 

So did my lord to the King 

Relate this marvellous thingJ* 



[24I: 



XTbe fivst H)ay 

Ithobal^ Captain of the Sea, 

Thus spake how it befell that he 

Of Pharaoh'' s ships did have cotnmand 

To sail unto the unseen land. 

ONG life to Pharaoh ! May the high Gods 
make 
Ever his greatness greater ! I am he, 
His servant and the Captain of his ships, 
Ithobal, born of Tyre, bred by marge 
Of sea, and nursed upon the breast of the sea, 
To learn her ways, as little children learn 
The anger and the tenderness of her 
Who feeds, and chides, and fashions them to men. 

Lo ! as land-dwellers con the ways of earth. 

The chariot-road, the camel's path in the sand, 

The halting places and the drinking wells, 

[ 25 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And where will be good grass, and where the rocks 

Hide robbers, and the swamp is home for snakes. 

And what to-morrow's march shall bring of hap. 

If suns sets ruddy, if he rises pale ; 

So grew I from the first to know my Sea, 

My ship's path on the purple and the green, 

The friendly reefs would give her refuges. 

The rugged deadly coasts that she must shun, 

And where fair water was and pirates lurked, 

And how to hold a vessel's painted eyes 

Straight to the furrow that her stem must plough 

Over those dancing meadows of the deep, 

All day by golden guidance of the sun, 

All night with shimmer of the Star of Tyre, 

Set in the north by Ishtar for our sakes. 

This lore of the wide waters I did gain, 

And ere my chin was bearded sailed and sailed 

Over the midland main ; threading the isles 

Coasting the Greek and Tuscan gulfs ; one year 

Moored to a Libyan palm tree, and the next 

[ 26 ] 



r H E FIRST DAT 



Rocking beneath black shade of northern pines. 

So did I win, ere I was man, as far 

As where the Western gateway of that sea 

Opens by Kalpe and the seven-topped mount 

Into what no man knoweth of — a waste 

Of waves as vast as time and dark as death, 

Wherein the sun himself did die each night, 

Plunging, 'twas said, with seethe of dripping gold 

Into the blue. Voyaging home again 

With many a Keel I searched the sea of Suph 

Which washes Misraim, and the emerald hills, 

And all thy Libya down to distant Punt, 

And where by Gate of Wailing one might come, 

If one dared come, into the nether worlds. 

Wherefrom five years ago returning, full 

Of perils past and passion to meet more, 

I broke my galley on a bladdered shelf 

Which lay in the dark like shadow of a cloud. 

We shed upon the brine gilt cloths enough 

To robe it like an arch-priest, and of spice 

[ 27 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

Rich bales to sweeten all its bitter salt 
With fragrance such as have the breasts of her 
Who lies by Syria's Lord. My ship I lost, 
My goods, my gathered profit, and my crew, 
Save certain here w^hom the deep cannot drown. 
Storm-seasoned against Fate. With these came I 
Beggared to Sa'is but for one rare pearl, 
Fished on a moonlit night by the Isle of Birds, 
Which lay, a moon itself, safe at my waist. 
So wended I, stripped by my mother-sea, 
Angry, to Tyre, the great pearl in my belt 
And that hard hunger gnawing at my heart, 
To find what lay beyond the Uttermost 
Whence storm and death did drive back Ithobal. 

But what the high gods will the high gods bring 

After their fashion. Wrathfully I lay 

In shadow of Lord Melkarth's marble house 

That looks o'er many-storied Tyre, and dips 

In the Sidonian port its image wan. 

[ 28 ] 



THE FIRSr DAT 



Listless I lay, bewailing evil fate, 
Life broken like my ship, my fruitless gifts 
On Ishtar's altar; when a silver dove — 
Ishtar's own bird it seemed — lit at my foot, 
Preening its shining feathers, stretching forth 




Its glittering neck, and with red pattering feet 

Hither and thither pacing, out of reach 

As who would tempt to follow. Half amazed, 

Half wayward, I pursue the eluding bird 

Which flutters, all its silver in the sun 

Asparkle, down the steps of the temple porch. 

Over the paved way, through the Tanners' Street, 

Along the quay where murex-fishers press 

[ 29 1 



THE VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

The purple from the sea-shells, at each flight 
Lending me promise I might stroke the wings 
Twinned-argent, and perchance capture the prize, 
The wonder, all of living lustre made. 
So did it draw me, foolish, blind, bemused, 
Into the quarter of the slave-market; 
Then with light beat of pinion soared away 
T'ward Ishtar's shrine. 

In ill-content I raised 

The curtain of the market-entry ; there 

The brokers with their tablets and their scales 

Sold boys and women for the temple chests, 

As is the wont. A shaded closure gave 

Shelter to buyers, and a stage arose, 

By steps attained, where one by one were set 

The slaves, the votive maidens, and the spoil 

Of war or traffic. Loud the clamour was 

Of wrangling scribes and haggling customers 

Computing and disputing. Not before 

[ 30 ] 



THE FIR ST DAT 



Witnessed I this, and had no mood to stay ; 
For the great sea is jealous, and my heart 
Until that day had followed only her, 
Knowing not, or but scantly, what new might 
May spring forth from an eye-glance, and what 

spells 
Bind boldest spirits with a touch or tone : 
And how a woman's hair may hold the soul 
The storm-rope of a galley could not check. 
Moreover what the Gods decree will be. 

For, Mighty Pharaoh ! as I turned on heel 

They lead upon the platform, for vile sale, 

Undraped, before those buyers clinking gold. 

This one — this lady of my life and deeds, 

Who kneeleth thy veiled handmaid here to-day ; 

Chosen by Ishtar, guardian and guide 

Of our vast travel, and to bring thee here 

This day, dread king ! the glory never matched 

Of nether worlds unlocked, Heaven's secret told : 

[ 31 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H B A L 

Seeing that it befell at moment when 

They bared her proud and glorious goodlihood 

To that coarse crowd, and cried her prices forth, 

I knew my fate shewn in the queenly face. 

The eyes, high-couraged 'mid their pain and shame. 

The mouth, tender and proud, with lips as red 

As new pomegranate buds, and teeth as white 

And even as a row in th' opening corn : 

In stature a dark Cypress, in her step 

A free gazelle of the desert, of that throng 

IMistress and Scorner though the knotted cord 

Lay shameful on her neck ; the master's mark 

Was set on cloth of Africa she bore. 

Now rudely reft. Then knew I why the bird 

Fluttered and fooled me to this selling spot — 

A dove of living silver whoe'er saw ? — 

Then knew I that this woman must be mine, 

Though she cost gold — though she cost stars — cost 

life ! 

But not yet knew I how the most wise Gods 

[ 32 ] 



THE FIR S r DAT 



Had hid their secret in her and bestowed 
By love my triumph. 

From long distant springs 

Whence old Nile flows in lands without a name 

Captive she came, from royal palace torn 

In some realm far away, 'neath other stars — 

Well nigh another world ; by native suns 

Stamped the soft colour of the ripening date; 

Skin like the three-plied byssus Sidon weaves ; 

Visage and mien of Princess, born to sway; 

Of fear and shame and falseness innocent; 

And speaking speech as gentle as when morn 

Whispers in palm tops. For she marked me, too. 

And shot one quick glance from those lustrous 

orbs; 

Then, beckoning me, murmured in broken words : 

*' Thou, thou, at last, my Lord ! Buy me, I pray ! 

Many a night I saw thee in my dreams : 

Thou art the man of Tyre, strong Ithobal, 

[ 33 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

A master of the sea, and I am thine, 
Thy servant and thy helper Hke the sea ; 
I have an errand to thee from the Gods ; 
Buy me, my master, I shall pay thee back ! " 

Thereat astonied, joyous, yet perplexed, 

I stood with them that bid ; and one cried thus. 

Another thus much more, another more, 

And yet another most, till one grey lord 

Tore from his wrinkled neck the chain of sards 

Carved curious in Egypt, laid in gold. 

And spake, " Sir broker ! thou dost put to sale 

A moon of heaven; 'twere worth an old man's 

wealth 
To die on such a bosom ; look ! I give 
My chain for gage that I will melt my ships. 
Three Keels of Tarshish, into what shall pay 
Ten thousand ounces for thy Nesta there." 

Then the beards wagged and baffled dealers drew 

[ 34 3 



THE F I RSr DAT 



Forth from the press, while the slave-master said : 

" The proffer of Lord Eshmian is well made ; 

A moon from heaven is this rare Libyan girl — 

Good market at ten thousand ounces ; yet 

Our Tyrian law forbids we sell a slave 

Without the leave once to deny herself 

To owner undesired, if that she find 

Another to her mind will overpass 

The topmost ofTer. Lady, dost thou take 

Lord Eshmiin for thine owner, or wilt name 

Some other venturer who liketh thee, 

If such a buyer be ? " The girl, at this. 

Quoth softly, '' Sell me to Lord Ithobal." 

And some waxed wroth, and some laughed scorn- 

fully. 
But I, with angry hand, loosening my hilt, 
Strode forward of them, and from forth my waist 
Drew the great pearl and said, " Sir broker ! ask 
Thy fellows of the scale what worth holds that 

— [ 35 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Measured in ounces? I do give it thee 

To buy this maiden." Then their puckered eyes 

Hung o'er the milky treasure, and they smote 

Their breasts and cried, '' This is a wonder-stone ; 

Its Hke was never seen save on the throat 

Of Thammuz when he roved with Heaven's bright 

Queen, 
And got for love-gifts certain of the stars. 
If those three ships ten thousand ounces fetch, 
Lord Eshmian, this could build as many more; 
Wilt thou give twenty thousand ounces told, 
Bidding the Tyrian Captain keep his pearl ? " 
But that grey lord across an evil face 
Drew his fringed-cloth, departing ; and we came, 
Nesta and I, unto my house in Tyre. 

In that new air of love, so sweet, so strange. 

Many days Hgged I ; and did quite forget 

My calling, and the calling of the sea; 

More and more gathering from her honeyed lips 

[ 36 ] 



THE FIR S r DAT 



What wisdom and what wonders lay behind 

The brow and breasts of sun-stained ivory : 

Learning to better know her foreign speech, 

Which mingled with the language later taught : 

Sometimes reciting, — head upon her knees. 

Or pillowed on her neck, — tales of Old Tyre, 

Of Melkarth's fane, and of high Ashtaroth, 

The seven great Gods without a name, the loves 

Of Shadid and the Moon. Or she would sing 

Soft songs in unknown cadences, to beat 

Of snake-skin, or of silver sistrum's thrill, 

Moving the mind to passion or to peace. 

As storms and light winds stir the waves. But I 

Noted no waves — albeit our lattice gave 

Full on the Egyptian harbour where there came 

By sunlight, and by stargleam, goodly craft — 

Two-banked and three-banked, — mighty ships of 

war. 
Girdled with shining shields ; and ships of peace 

Stuffed to their bursting hatches with rich bales 

[ 37 ] 



'•'3i 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Of dyed cloths and of frankincense and gum. 

Vainly for Ithobal bellied their sails; 

Their painted flags danced vain against the sky, 

Their straining rigging creaked, their dripping oars 

Beat the brine into milk ; his playfellows, 

The barque, the billow, and the boundless marge 

Pleased him no more; in Nesta's heart he slept, 

A galley anchored in a land-locked bay. 

Yet what the Gods ordain that thing will fall. 

We sat one eve on the cool roof, and watched 

The Lord of Day go glorious to his bath 

In gold and purple splendours of the West ; 

And when I said, '' I know that path he goes, 

And something too I know what path he comes 

From the East desert and its rivers twain; 

And over black and yellow breeds of men; 

But no one knows, not Bel's great self I think. 

The Southward of our world. See ! " — and I drew 

With finger dipped in the spilled Lesbian wine 

[ 38 ] 



THE FIRST DAT 



A rude map on the marble bench ; '' See ! here 
Sits Egypt ; by her side the sea of Suph, 
And past that sea is Punt which I have viewed, 
For some do come there making perilous trade ; 
But all beyond is nought — night, silence, death — 
None knoweth or can know." 




She wet with wine 

A finger, and, with light laugh, featly made 

A finish to my picture on the stone ; 

Saying, " Dear honoured lord, but I do know ! 

It is not night, nor death, nor darkness there, 

But such a land that this thy Syria 

[ 39 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF IT U O B A L 

Counts but for curtilage, and Egypt's self 

A melon-garden. Where thou shutt'st in Punt, 

The mighty coast sweeps southward girt with sea, 

And southward still and southward till you come 

To mine own country." Then she murmured 

forth, — 

Like a dove cooing never-ending notes 

Of something sweet and secret in her wood 

Unfolding leaf by leaf, — stories of skies 

Whereunder she was born, with stars and peaks 

Not known to ours ; of mighty streams that sprang 

From mountain bosoms lifting changeless snows 

Into the central blue, which, leaping down 

By monstrous cataract and reeded reach. 

Full of strange creatures that did swim and fly. 

And banked by woodlands flowery, wild, and still, 

Poured over thirsty sands green wealth of crops, 

Feeding much people. And what seas there were. 

Wide inland seas shut in the knees of hills. 

Which held no salted drop and felt no tides, 

[ 40 ] 



r H E FIRST DAT 



Yet whereupon a well-rowed boat might pass 

And spy for seven whole days no land at all. 

Of marvellous tribes she babbled, pigmy folk 

Mouse-skinned and munching roots ; of man-eaters 

Whose horrid food were what they took in war ; 

Some that went stark as stones; and some that bore 

Bark dyed Uke butterflies, or speckled skins, 

Or pied, or tawny, from the forest won, 

With ornament fantastic of pierced bone. 

Coral and cowTie, and rude-spangled bead. 

Of countless herds she spoke, white goats and black, 

Kine, wild and gentle, and the long-tailed sheep. 

And apes like unto men ; grim things of the waste 

Whose names put terror in her tender voice — 

In mine ears meaningless. Also their Kings, 

What savage state these kept ; and of their gods, 

What images were made in wood and stone, 

Iron and gold and silver ; for she touched 

The plates of gold tied in her clustering hair 

And said, " This groweth there ; our daily grain 

[41 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Was dressed in this." And of the birds she spake ; 

Wonderful birds, hke flowers equipped with wings 

Blazing in blue and gold and rainbow hues ; 

Of serpents that did drag a mottled bulk, 

Thick as an ox-girth, through the crackling brake, 

Full thirty cubits long. Of creatures dreamed 

Only in nightmare, as I thought; sea-cows 

And river-horses, and a beast that fed 

His spotted muzzle mid the topmost boughs ; 

Huge pigs that wore horned daggers on the nose, 

And elephants that went like moving hills 

Through the affrighted thickets ; lions dire, 

With estridges their ivory eggs a-heap 

For suns to hatch, and lizards fathom long, 

And other brutes which w^alked in armoured suits 

Like the mailed men of Elam. For all this 

A land, she said, fair in some parts as Earth 

Hath fairest ; and with many a race renowned 

For meekness, friendliness, and courtesy. 

Mild to the stranger, piteous to the weak; 

[ 42 ] 



r H E FIR S r DAT 



Herself the daughter of a sovereign 

Puissant in arms, opulent, rich in love, 

In reverence and worship from his folk, 

Far, far beyond that marble edge whereto 

She drew the willing wine: from whose kind 

throne, 
Torn in her childhood by a treachery. 
She had become a wanderer, and mine. 

O King ! if thou hast seen thy Nile pour down 

At rain-break, rushing o'er his stones to the sea; 

If thou hast seen on Suph the summer flood 

Come home in foam and freshets to each gulf 

When the great South wind roars ; so did my heart, 

Which is thy servant, once more burn for the beach 

As this dusk teacher opened wide the doors. 

And showed me where to look for that which 

crowns 

Even thyself with glory. Since she said, — 

Whenever in that journey of her lips 

[ 43 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

I stayed and questioned her, '' Yea, there and there 
We saw the sea ; no mountain-margined pool 
But Kneph's own water dreadful, shining, wide, 
Rolling its billows southward, northward still. 
How far our farthest coast men answer not." 

What the high gods will have falls at its hour ; 

For, sitting at the lattice with new eyes, 

Awake from love and seeing clear again. 

So that once more the ships were friends to me, 

The noise of rowers' music, the sea's voice 

Under those white walls full of private words ; 

There came, great Pharaoh ! messengers from thee, 

Egyptians of thy household, men of worth. 

Envoys to Tyre. We heard a herald blow 

A conch-shell, and the cymbals played, and one 

From a papyrus spake these words aloud 

In hearing of the town : ^' To friendly men, 

To mariners of Tyre, the lord of lords, 

The Pharaoh ruling over Misraim, 

[ 44 ] 



"T H E FIR S r BAT 



Sendeth goodwill and greeting. He hath need 

Of sailors for a thing he hath to do, 

A voyage of ships full perilous, but full 

Of guerdon in the going, and of more 

In the returning, if there hap return; 

Since these ships sail to harbours never seen. 

Well known ye are, of Tyre and Sidon sons. 

For craft upon the waters ; if there be 

Those that fear danger less than they hate sloth, 

Those seasoned with the salt, who will take wage 

And service with the Pharaoh for this work. 

Let them ask service." And with this was flung 

Largesse among the folk, yet no man stirred. 

Outspake an ancient one, from Ascalon : 

*' Ye men of Tyre take heed ! Three winters past 

Across the brook of Egypt I and some 

Wended with camels, and came thither where 

The east horn of the Lord of Egypt's Sea 

Juts green into the Stony Land ; we saw 

[ 45 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

Along the shore three crosses ; on them hung 
What of three men the kites and crows had left — 
Dried skull, and skin, and bones. * What wrought 

these ones, * 
We asked, ' that they should moulder in the sun? * 
And the folks said : ' These are three officers 
Conspired against the peace of Pharaoh ; he 
Willing to spare their lives bade them take ship 
And sail and sail over past utmost bound 
To fetch him secrets from the dark ; but they 
After ten moons of travel clapped on wing 
Of homeward voyage. Reaching home they 

cried : — 
" Better to die than bear what we have borne 
Fronting the frightful perils of yon world 
Which hath a death on every wave, a hell 
At every cape. Kill us, but send not there." ' 
And Pharaoh paid their wages, slaying them." 

But Nesta bent upon me those dark eyes, 

[ 46 ] 



r H E FIRST DAT 



Deep as the sea, and spake, " This is for thee, 

Ithobal, son of Magon, lord and lover, 

The gods do bring thy heart and wish in one. 

Rise and make parley with these men of Nile ; 

It is thy work, and I shall help thy work ; 

Thou art the man they seek." And while she spake 

The silver dove of Ishtar fluttered in. 

Perched at my elbow, cooed a dulcet note. 

Then darted seaward with a singing wing 

In token that the gods would have their will. 

But when they said in Tyre, " Ithobal goes 

In service of the Pharaoh to build ships 

Which shall at Pharaoh's charge sail the dark seas 

Nether of nethermost and past the bounds 

Where boldest oar hath dipped," the white town 

poured 
All its sea-people round me, for 'tis known 
How multitudinous Tyre sits on the wave, 
And what throngs, many-coloured, swarm her 

quays, 

[ 47 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Doing the business of the waters. There 
Were traders from the isles loud-traf!icking 
With such as brought by weary caravan 
Fir boards and cedar out of Lebanon; 
And patient shapers of the bladed oar 
Bargaining for Bashan oak and ivory 
To edge the rowing benches ; Chittin men, 
Swarthy and watchful, and the Ashurites, 
And those that traded linen, white and blue 
Or bordered, to make sails; sea wolves sun- 
tanned 
From Sidon and from Arvad; mixed with these 
The wise grey master-pilots of the place, 
Quick to catch tidings, knowing all the seas, 
But beating on their breasts at word of this ; 
Caulkers from Gebal, wotting well to keep 
Seams tight and hull wave-worthy ; companies 
Of shipmen come from Elam, Lud and Phut ; 
Merchants and fighting folk busy with bales 

Or cleaning shields, or pointing arrow-heads, 

[ 48 ] 



r H E FIRST DAT 



Or fitting spears with new-forged blades; those 

called 

The Gemmadin, with sturdy cargoers 

Of Tarshish, Javan, Meshech, clamorous they 

To sell their slaves and vaunt their brazen ware. 

Togharmah dealers drew into our throng 

Lean, keen-eyed, desert-born, leading their strings 

Of mules and horses ; and from Dedan those 

Who bring the tusks of elephant, the myrrh, 

The ebony, and gum. Swart Syrians 

Bartering for cloths of Tyre stained by the shell 

Their emeralds, corals, agates ; bearded Jews 

Selling their wheat from Minnith, honey, oil. 

And balm of Pannag; and Damascus-breds 

Plying their business with white bleached wools. 

And wines of Helbon : with such come from Dan 

Who sold bright iron, cassia, calamus. 

Cushions for chariots: tribesmen from the sands 

Of Araby with lambs and rams, and shawls 

Of camel-hair for tents; and Raamah sent, 

[ 49 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

And Sheba, coffers filled with subtle spice, 

Fine stones, tiirkis and sard and lazuli 

And powdered gold. Haran and Canneh there 

Put forth their stores of blue and broidered work 

And chests of rich apparel, bound with cords 

On scented cedar. All the noise of these, 

The singing of the sailors, and the cries 

Of sellers, and the stir of the bazaar. 

The dance-girls, the snake-charmers, drum-players, 

The fortune-tellers, minstrels, priests that begged 

Alms for the temples — all broke off and heard. 

All stayed and listened, and drew nigh to us 

Along the water-face of Tyre that eve. 

Knowing of Ithobal and how he took 

Service with Pharaoh, with my lord the King. 

Also at parting there was sacrifice 
To those who rule the sea, — the Fish-tailed God 
And the Twin Stars and the Seven Nameless 
Ones. 

[ 50 1 



r H E FIRST BAT 



But when in Ishtar's fane they brought to slay 
Two boys of Africa limbed like young deer, 
Soft-voiced but speaking most with wistful 

eyes, 
Whom the grey priests that go her altar round 




Would offer for the speeding of our voyage, 

'Twas lady Nesta took the knife away 

From the stretched hands and cut the bonds of 

those, 
Handah and Gondah, saying, " Take the price 
In sheep or camel for the thing ye do ; 

My lord and I did trace the journey's plan 

[ 51 ] 



r H E VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

With wine, not blood, and so will follow it, 
Bloodless, if this may be, since pity comes 
To those that pity." And behold those here 
Safe and most faithful among faithful found. 



END OF THE FIRST DAY. 



^[52]: 



TLbc Second H)a^ 

Ithobal^ Magoii^s son, of Tyre 
Hath comfort for his hearfs desire ; 
He builds in Egypt galleys three 
To sail unto the U7iknown Sea. 

AY the King live for ever ! By thy soul ; 

By thy magnificence and majesty; 

Not less than such a treasure-house 

as thine, 

No bounty meaner than great Pharaoh's grace, 

No hand less open and no weaker heart 

Than thine, O Lord of Lords ! had plenitude 

For charges of this high emprize. Our Tyre, 

With all her pride, her merchants bold and keen, 

Her ships shut ofif into the Midland Sea, 

Her sailors fearless and her pilots wise 

Held no heart for the task sore tempting her. 

Thy kingly wish it was, thy kingly word, 

[ 53 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

Thy largesse, broad and fertile as the Nile, 
Called me to be thy captain, and bestowed 
With godlike power the means to work thy will; 
And bring thee, as I bring, thy biddings done. 

Nigh fifty moons agone — thou knowest, Lord ! 

Before thy throne I kneeled in this same hall 

And heard thy word, how thine Egyptians brought 

Tales whispered from the stillness of the South 

Of lands outside known land, and wash of seas 

Beyond heard waters where, what seemed to stand 

The edge of the Earth, might haply stretch afar, 

Might haply keep in darkness some new light, 

In silence some strange voice, in the will of the Gods 

Some golden secrets held for hardihood : 

And how that darkness vexed thy royal soul ; 

And how that silence teased thee, and the thought 

Though thou were Lord of Nile and didst command 

Suph and her shores, there might be territory, 

Goodly to gain, and spread of sovereignty, 

[ 54 ] 



r H E S E C O N D DAT 

And godlike deeds to do, if one knew where. 

And saying, '' Thus much wot we," thou didst bid 

Thy scribes unroll the painted skins that shewed 

The sea lines and the land lines where they stayed. 

Then I, who had sailed boldest of my time. 

Marked, at thy mandate, to what spot I went 

Farthest of far. And when thou saidst to me 

" What is yet farther, and how might we reach 

To tear the truth from Kneph ? " humbly I gave 

Reply and spake : '' Kneph and the mighty gods 

Alone know this : yet if a King should grant 

Gold and the gifts to build three stalwart ships 

Here on thy sea; and freight them full of gear; 

And fit them in such wise to mock at storms ; 

And man them with picked companies enured 

To close obedience and contempt of fate, 

With rowers seasoned to the labouring oar. 

And watchful timoneers, and men-at-arms 

Chosen for bravest ; I, tried sailor here, 

Ithobal, son of Magon, at his word 

[ 55 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B J L 

Would from the silent gods their secret pluck 
Or leave my life where I did lose his ships." 

Then, mighty Pharaoh ! thou didst answer me, 

'' Build me those ships on these my waters here ; 

Build at what cost thou wilt to make them stout, 

As if the beams were of red gold, and decks 

Of planished silver. Stuff them with such gear 

As largest forethought asks. Fill them with store 

Of all thy longest travel could demand. 

Hire me from Tyre or Sidon, whence thou wilt, 

Picked mariners and skilful timoneers 

And valiant men-at-arms who know thy flag, 

And will not dread to follow where it fhes. 

Thou art of Pharaoh's service, Ithobal, 

From this day's noon ; and ye, chief councillors, 

Put a red robe of honour on this man ; 

Give him a guard ; and wearing this my ring, 

Command my overseers, treasurers. 

Store-keepers, officers, artificers, 

[ 56 ] 



THE S E C O N D DAT 

To grant all asked, of timbers, leathers, brass, 
Victuals, and viands, honey, grain and oil. 
Fulfilling what he will." So spakest thou, 
Most royal master, lordliest of all lords ! 

Thus did I build and build. A windless creek 
Turns hither from the western horn of Suph — 
Which hath two horns upon the northern end 
Of thy Red Water — turns to 'Ataka. 
Broad yellow sands athwart the green waves look 
To Moosa's Fountain, and grey mountains piled, 
Peaks w^hich take morning first, and rosy crags 
That see the last of sunset over Cush. 
There did we choose a spot with easy slope 
To the dimpled inlet, and good underground 
To take the cradles, while to that same place. 
Moon after moon, thy bounty brought to me 
Food for the toil ; acacia wood, palm logs, 
Sont, and, for stubborn knee-pieces and bends, 
Grey iron-bark ; also from Lebanon 

[ 57 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

By raft or caravan, fair cedar planks, 

Trimmed to fine edge, and pine-tree poles to make 

Masts, and for benches lengths of sycamore, 

With oak and ash for oars, and iron clamps 

To knit the joints, and nails of bronze to bind 

Timber to timber. And with these things came 

Mechanics out of Tarshish, Sidon, Tyre, 

Cunning to wield the mallet and the adze; 

Carpenters, skilled to dovetail to a hair ; 

Smiths, who knew well with hammer and with tongs 

To bend the brass taking their will like wax. 

These came with sawyers, caulkers, sailmakers, 

And those deep-crafty the green hides to twist 

In cord and cable ; or from hair and flax 

Halyard and brace to braid ; chiefs of the band, 

The master-builders with their compasses 

And reed-pens marking measurements, most 

shrewd 

To note if any faulty baulk or knot 

Creep with the sound stulT midst our goodly gear 

[ 58 ] 



r H E SECOND DAT 

And at some pinch bewray us. Succoured thus, 
Well did our building fare by edge of sea. 

Three ships we planned to build, — biremes, — to 

bulk 

Large for our stores and sailors ; not too large 

To take the shore at need and deftly pass 

Inside the reefs, by narrow channel ways, 

When seas were angry. Ships that in the calm 

Might lightly wxnd with measured stress of oars, 

Or, if fair winds did blow, sea-worthy spread 

Their painted wings. The first, of my command, 

Should be The Silver Dove ; in length 'twas schemed 

Sixty-five cubits, and in beam eleven; 

Row-seats, of under deck fifteen a-side ; 

Of upper row-seats, to the right and left, 

Two-score. Forward and afterward, strong built. 

Cabins enclosed ; and round her sides a run 

Of gallery, where mariners should work 

Nor foul the oarsmen. In the foremost part, 

[ 59 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

A mast of pine with laddered shrouds, well-stayed ; 

And knitted linen sails, wide for light airs. 

Scanty for blustering breezes; oar-ports carved 

For seventy blades. Under the Thalamites, — 

The lower rowers, — goodly space should stretch 

Where stores would lie, and waste sea-water drain, 

And the fair ship at need take ballast in. 

Light must she be for hauling; strong for shocks. 

Ample to house her company : this ship 

Was mine and Lady Nesta's with the best 

Gathered about us for the enterprise : 

No slave band straining sullen at the looms, 

But free men of the sea, good at the oar. 

Good at the tackle, good at need with spear 

Or sling or bow : tried mariners whereof 

Hanno the Carchedonian, under me. 

Had mastership ; comrade in bygone days. 

Built like to this, but of bulk scantier, 

Was Ram of Kneph, with fifty rowing men, 

Hiram of Tyre her captain : joined with him 

[ 60 ] 



THE S E C O N D DAT 

My sister's son, Hamilcar. Last and third, 

The Black Whale whereupon Nimroud did rule, 

With Sothes the Egyptian. She should bear 

Forty stout oars and be provision craft, 

Close stuffed with goods and gear and merchandise. 

These did we fashion as a man doth frame 

That which life hangs on and the ends of life, 

Not matching board nor morticing a beam 

Save, mighty King, as if the eye of Thoth 

Noted our labouring, to spare or slay 

As each one's duty went into the work. 

We laid false keels dressed out of stubborn stuff, 

From stem to stem, to take the slippery sand, 

The grinding shelf : bolted and fanged them home 

Into the solid keels; and over those. 

The kelsons moulded into one with them : 

Atop of all false kelsons, where the feet 

Of the masts stood fast. Across them and across 

Bolted the sister-beams ; built up the ribs ; 

[ 6i ] 



THE VOYAGE OF irHOBAL 

Worked in the elbow-pieces and the knees ; 
Braced them with tough ties; wedged the transom- 
ends; 
Drove home the deck supports ; and covered in 
The hollow wombs of these with bedded planks, 
Doubled below; and every seam and joint 
Nicely with pitch sealed in and palm fibres. 
In all their sides we cut the ports for oars 
Rimmed and well rounded ; and to every port 
The leathern sleeve true fixed, lest the rude sea 
Break through upon the rowers. 

When 'twas wrought, 

And the three goodly ships lay trim and strong, — 

Sea-things that took a life from shape and sheen, 

And seemed like Ocean's children, keen to dip 

Their breasts in the flood, — we stepped the masts in 

each; 

Set up the standing tackle; hoisted yards; 

Fitted abaft the two great oars that steer ; 

[ 62 3 



THE S E C O ND DAT 

Bedecked each hull in colours glad and gay, 

Reddening the prows and painting bold and bright 

Each vessel's eyes, where the wide binding boards 

Drew fine into the stem, fair-finishing 

With each craft's emblem ; mine a silver dove, 

Ishtar's bright sign — to keep the Goddess ours — 

And on the Ram of Kneph, the Lord of Waves, 

Figured in brass and ivory, for guide 

Of Hanno's crew. But Hiram had for his 

A great whale spouting, carved in ebony. 

We launched them light, not straining the new 

hulls 
Till seams should tighten, soaked; and all defaults 
Show plain. But like sea-nymphs born for the 

brine. 
Comely, defectless on the flood they sate. 

Next, ship by ship, we laded, tier on tier 
Stowing our merchandise ; the cloth, the beads, 

The wares wild people love, spare goods and gear, 

[ 63 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And over these in tall red jars, the grain ; 
Flour for the ship-cakes, honey, oil, pulse, meal, 
Dried fish, and rice, and salted goods. Nor wine 
Was lacking; seasoning herbs and kitchen stuff; 
Nor camel-cheese, nor dates. The water-pots 
At each port we should fill. Phoenician hands 
Well know to pack a hold, wasting small space. 
All lay in order ; each man had his niche. 

Afterwards in full council I unfold 

How we shall voyage. This near sea is known. 

Ishtar's bright bird on prow of Ithobal 

Safely will wing her way from point to point, 

From reef to reef, on western shore of Suph ; 

From Klysma to Greek Harbour ; by Kosseir ; 

Under the emerald mount and 'Ataka ; 

Down past Aidhab, and where the hills of Kus 

Shut off the sinking sun, till we attain. 

Four hundred leagues from this, past many isles, 

An island green and grey. The black rocks jag 

[ 64 ] - 



THE S E C O N D DAT 

Its lonely steeps; on this side and on that 
The sea frets in a narrow passaging, 
All day and night making its moan ; for there 
Is '' Gate of Lamentation/' whence we pass, 
By this hand or by that, out from those seas 
That bear a name. Thus far 'tis training time; 
We and our vessels will become acquaint. 
And thus far shall these three, The Silver Dove, 
The Ram and Whale securely wend : by day, 
If north wind favours, spreading square sails wide ; 
If no wind blows over the poop, with oars ; 
By night reposing, when the sea rolls strong, 
On shore well chosen ; if the sea be still, 
At anchor ; save if Ishtar's kindly moon 
Shine and 'tis good to make of night a day. 
Lessening the leagues, and leagues and leagues to 
come. 

Moreover for the slow the swift must wait, 

Or by clear signals lead to meeting-place; 

[ 65 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF irHOBAL 

Best safety will still lie in fellowship. 
We set for each the watches ; such an hour 
For toil, and such for food ; at such an hour 
Due worship to the gods ; and then at such 
To cleanse each ship, and broken gear refit, 
And bail the holds, and grease the rowing-ports. 
Also, by signs made, when to take the land. 
And how to beach, and how to set a guard ; 
And who should search the fountains out, and fill 
The water-pots ; and who make friendly parle 
With native people, opening markets so ; 
And what was good to buy and just to give. 

'Twas common lore of mariners how Suph 

Sleeps in a tideless bed, nor feels that moon 

Which at her full draws the wide waters up. 

And at her dark half drops them. Thy Red Sea, 

Great Pharaoh ! belting in all Misraim here. 

By no streams fed, bordered by burning sands 

Or sun-baked mountains, sucks the ocean in 

[ 66 ] 



THE S E C O N D DAT 

To give it forth again in mist and dew : 

So, if one lay his ship upon a beach, 

No certain flood will come to lift her off. 

As otherwhere : but if the wind blow strong 

This way or that a current runs will raise 

The waters to two cubits or to three. 

Well-nigh through all the year a North- West 

creams 
The blue with silver ; it shall fill our sails 
Dawn after dawn till at the ninth moon's end — 
Two moons from setting forth — we reach that isle 
Baulking the southern breeze, would hold us back ; 
Albeit as ye pass outside, by then, 
The season mellows and the soft monsoon — 
Prayed for of Arab sailors — breathing mild 
Out of the white North-West, shall waft us on 
Whither I know not, nor its winds nor tides. 

Followed brave days; the north wind filled our 

sails, 

[ 67 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF ir H O B A L 

The green sea glittered under 'Ataka, 

Then, deepening, changed to bkie, and sparkled 

bright 
In spume and long-laced breaker, where reef edge 
Breasted its roll. A good day's travel done — 
Sufficeth if we finish fifteen leagues 
With sheet and blade — at dark we find some nook 
Of favouring shoal or friendly promontory, 
Where my three ships could sleep safe moored, or 

rest 
Aground. Then some on shore lit cooking fires ; 
And some spread nets to catch the finny food ; 
And some adventured into thickets near 
For fuel, or what game might be afoot, 
Or fruits and gums and herbs. Glad they did 

stretch 
Limbs cramped from shipboard on the dry clean 

sand. 

Or chase with bow in hand the shy gazelle ; 

Or barter with the wild-eyed villagers ; 

[ 68 3 



THE S E C O N D BAT 

To some all strange, but not to Nesta here, 

My Lady of the Land, who knew its face — 

As daughter knows the mother's eyes and lips — 

And knew its flowers and trees, and why they grew. 

And which were good and evil. Nay, one eve 




This spacious deed had in beginning died 

But for my lady. On the beach we paced. 

The sun being just gone down, and heedlessly 

I set my sandal on some mouldering bark : 

Forth from the crackle slipped a hooded asp 

Which stung and stung again. I mocked at the 

worm : 

[ 69 ] 



"t H E VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

But Nesta, sweet orbs wide — lips drawn — teeth 

set — 
Clutched me and cried, " Thou hast three hours to 

live, 
Dear lord, except I find the serpent-root 
In some near brake." Then, stooping first, she 

sucked 
Those tw^o small wounds, and spitting on the sand. 
Ran to the thicket; presently returned. 
Some plant in hand which had a whitish leaf. 
With prickles, and the blossom like a snake ; 
Of this she chews and chews, binds leaf and root 
Over the limb ; then from her bosom draws 
Some sacred thing curiously wrought in gold. 
Which helped her at her prayers, and clasping 

that, 
Pillowed my hot brows on her gentle knees. 
I had much thirst ; meseems I nearly swooned. 
But woke unharmed with Nesta w^atching near. 

But, " Master dear ! " she said, "' 'twas an ill worm ! 

[ 70 ] 



THE S E C O N D DAT 



Nought could have saved thee if my leaf saved 

not 
And Nesta's faithful lips; oh ! an ill worm." 



In midst of Suph ere yet the season breaks, 

Between the winds a belt of calm will stretch 

Under that burning arch of day, those nights 

Spangled with stars. There idle hangs the sail, 

Dead drops the useless pennon at mast-head ; 

From the deck-seams oozes the pitch, the planks 

Burn the bared foot ; the sea smokes in the sun. 

And in its hot and oily glass there swim 

Strange shapes that love the warm brine and the 

calm: 

Water snakes, green and gold, or ringed, or pied, 

Or mottled, like a pard, yellow and black ; 

Some with sharp muzzle, some with foul flat heads 

And fiendish eyes ; then monstrous sea-jellies, 

Purple, and russet, silvery grey and pink, 

With filmy oars and mouths which ope and close, 

[ 71 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Pant their slow passage through the salt. Soon 

comes 
Amidst them, as a ship through bladder-wrack, 
The great grey robber-shark, his black fin hoist. 
Like pirate's sail, and slimy belly of pearl ; 
A spear-blade gleaming as it cuts the blue. 
The little fishes fly, save one bold sort 
Striped motley, with long snout, which is the slave 
And lick-plate of the shark, seeking for him 
Food, that the little fish may leavings eat ; 
No shark so hungry that will swallow him. 
Along the heaving hyaline there lie 
Ropes of thick sea-grass, yellow, black, and red. 
Torn by the teeth of storms from ledge awash 
Along the coast ; if we shall nearly look, 
A thousand myriad little mariners 
Die on that drifting wreck, small shell-fishes 
Who made their tiny houses beautiful; 
Strange creatures, like sea blossoms having Hps 
On every leaf, that built upon the rock, 

[ 72 ] 



r H E S E C O N D DAT 

And, like poor mortals, thought their world would 

last; 
Now drive they outcast with their broken house. 
Oft spake we, she and I, of this strange strife 
By the high Gods decreed 'twixt life and death. 
Where living to be slain we slay to live. 
And all which Isis gives Amenti takes. 
By the Seven Nameless Ones ! she said a word 
Wise to my mind, one morning, while we rowed 
Nigh " The Two Brothers " in the belt of calm. 
Beneath that windless morning on the waves 
A flock of sea-fowl seated wide and far 
Made the sea white; for leagues and leagues they 

rocked 
On the smooth sob o' the deep, screaming for joy 
Of living and the lust of prey. I spake : — 
'' See yonder gluttons of the wing and beak ! 
How glad and fair, yet are they murderers 
Who spy huge shoals of homely guiltless fish 
Hastening to spawn, and circumvent them here, 

[ 73 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And swallow at a gulp mother and seed, 
Father and milt ; for one day of bird life 
Destroying thirty myriad lives of fish ! 
Shall this be justice here? hath Thoth known all? 




God Melcar, and Oueen Ishtar and Great Bel? " 
But reverently she fetched her fetish forth 
And laid it to her lips, and murmured, '' Lord ! 
To see the ways of Gods aw^ait new eyes." 



Then fell the rain storms : where the sister winds 
From north and south bring their black cloud- 
wracks up, 

[ 74 ] 



THE SECOND DAT 

These meet and break their sullen swollen wombs 

With thunder and with lightning. O'er the sea 

Wasted sweet water pelts, beats down the crests 

Of billow^s that would rise, makes dry rocks ring 

With patter of the cataracts, and paints 

The barren valleys green. But we, aware 

Of tempests in the middle waters, hug 

The friendly shore, skirting with shallow keels 

And cunning stress of oars, where the gaps come, 

From cape to cape. One night, in the ninth moon, 

The Ram, making for beach — the sea being full — 

Took ground on lip of ledge, and shore away 

Her hither bilge-piece. When the dawn did break 

She hangs there, perilous. We lighten her ; 

We take off what we may of store and gear ; 

Fling overboard what might be spared; with pole 

And rope put strain to free her, for she grinds 

But by the counter : yet all's nought ! the tide 

Swells near its topmost : then doth Hiram take 

His stoutest cable shoreward, kept a-dry, 

[ 75 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Braces it twainfold three palm stems around ; 
Strains the great cord to breaking ; yet all's nought ! 
Till, at the nick, when most the tide wave lifts, 
And most the Ram doth tremble, Hiram cries, 
'' Water unto the cord ! " Young Hamilcar 
Drenches the hawser ; the wet fibres knit 
Closer by half a span ; the cable cracks. 
But the good ship swings free and comes to peace 
On quiet sands. 

Now must we find afield 

Timber to mend Kneph's barque. Yet here grow 

not 

The forest trees would fit our purposes; 

Sont only, and the Doum, and stunted thorns. 

Nathless, over the plain at foot of hills 

That to a highland climb by terraces, 

A belt of woodland darkens, green and long. 

Whereto with spears and axes and a band 

Of willing men we make a march. I go 

[ 76 ] 



r H E S E C O N D BAT 

With Lady Nesta and the Egyptian slaves, 

Handah and Gondah. Since that day the knife 

Was taken from their necks at Nesta's word, 

These had been steadfast to her service, guards 

Watching her steps and shadowing all her walks. 

An open rolling plain it was that sloped 

By rock and sand-hill and a world of thorns 

To uplands with mimosa groves and mounds 

By the wise ants built ; oh ! a lonely land. 

Save for the ring-doves and some speckled hens 

Which ran and cackled in the brake, and herds 

Of silk-skinned antelopes. There, mighty King, 

First did I view that creature of the waste 

Which hath two horns upon his snout, and tail 

Swine-like, and armoured plates like Gammadim, 

Eyes of the pig, and body of the steer; 

Surely in sport the high Gods fashioned it. 

Eor, as we bore our beam forth from the wood, 

The wild thing burst upon us, scattering all, 

And Nesta said '' Incomha, Master, heed ! 

[ 77 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

This is the white horned beast of Africa 
Which is to dread : stand still until he charge, 
But when he sinks his muzzle to the ground, 
Step swiftly right or left, he will not see." 
But while it came upon us Gondah's spear 




Ham-strung the beast and when it wallowed prone, 
The blade of Handah found its heart and slew. 
So were we quit, and good meat made that foe. 
Carved in long strips and slow-dried in the sun. 
Then patched we Hiram's vessel where the ledge 
Tore her bilge bare. It was a seasoned balk 

Shred by the lightning from a forest-king, 

[ 78 ] 



THE S E C O N D DAT 

Untouched by worm, mended my stout Ram's side. 

So sped we thence with south-wind, gusts, and rain, 

And then, anew, calm seas whereon my crews 

By this stage fitly trained, would emulate. 

One flag against the other, ship with ship 

Racing for joy of manhood and free waves. 

With three-score blades and ten The Silver Dove 

Held easy mastership. The Ram and Whale 

More equal courses ran, and good to view 

On such gay days the oars play to the tunes 

Of flute and drum-skin sounded from bench-foot — 

Zeugite and Thalamite — above, below, 

Keeping one pulse and cutting clean the blue 

To toss it, creamy foam and bubbles back 

Along the whitened pathway of each keel, 

Where in our wakes the glistening dolphins danced. 

Thus southward, southward came we, sometimes 

held 

Captive in bay or inlet by ill winds ; 

Sometimes much threatened of the coast people. 

[ 79] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I^HOBAL 

But we were strong and watchful ; if ashore 
We pitched a camp, the place was circled in 
With thorny boughs and tree-roots and a fosse. 
All down unto the isle, of mariners 
Two only had we lost ; some beast by night 
Dragged one asleep into the dark ; and one 
Died of a calenture : that which is writ 
Is writ within the book of each man's life. 

In the tenth moon we sailed out of that sea : 
There the great ocean opened ; east and south 
The unknown world which, Pharaoh ! now is thine 
By lordly primal right. East and to north 
I myself wotted of a port secure 
Into bare calcined hills gave entrance good, — 
Shamshan they name the mountain — and the town 
Which, in a cup of burnt-out fire-mount, sleeps 
Attanoe.* From the isle one day and night 
With steadfast oars and favouring breath of breeze 

* Aden. 
- [ 80 ] 



THE S E C O N D DAT 

Moored thy ships, Majesty of Egypt ! safe. 
It is a friendly people ; from their wells 
Hewn in the rock, we filled sweet water up; 
Bought palm fruit and great cream-white estridge- 

eggs— 
For three men sharp-set one doth make a meal — 
With millet-flour and oil of olive trees ; 
But mainly water ; for my purpose held — 
Unspoken save to Nesta and the chiefs — 
Bold to put forth into that eastward blue 
Which had no shore I knew, nor place of rest, 
Nor help for thirst, nor food for emptiness, 
Nor shield from storm and death, till we should 

pass 
Full seven-score leagues of naked waves, and view 
A great cliff rise out of that nameless sea — 
So said the coast folk — and they called that cliff 
East Horn of the Large Land where none hath 

come. 

END OF THE SECOND DAY 

[ 81 ] 



Ithobal, pushing o'er the main, 
Reacheth a shore with stress and pain ; 
Strange 7nen and birds and beasts hath seen, 
And winneth where no man had bee?t, 

LORY, and life, and grace from the high 
Gods 
Unto Great Pharaoh! From the Ara- 
bian Shore 
At end of the ninth moon we pushed to sea : 
The Ram, The Black Whale, and The Silver Dove, 
Thy ships, a goodly triplet rigged afresh. 
Well filled and fitted; for my purpose held 
To trust the deep and to be done with land. 
Till the gulf's far coast — if coast there be, 
As the sea people think — we touch a cape 
East of the mainland, if mainland there hap. 

So had I charged the water-pots and crammed 

[ 83 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Our jars with meal and feasted full my crews, 
To hearten up their manhood ; yet none knew 
Except the captains and my lady here 
How to the winds and waves we gave our souls ; 
What trackless seas we clove quitting that port 
With merry plash of oars, and steering straight 
Where none did steer before. At setting forth 
Nesta bade bring aboard of merchandise — 
Or so I deemed — a score of bales, and laid 
The goods — I thought for barter — in the poop, 
Where her sea-chamber stood. The sky was blue, 
The sun beamed glad, the silver-broidered waves 
Lisped pleasant music, and there breathed a 

wind, — 
Spiced with the myrrh and aloes of the hills, — 
Which tripped our swiftest blades and drove our 

beaks 

Deep in the dancing green. But when it fell. 

And right abaft us in the lonely gulf 

The sun dipped, all aflame with gold and pearl, 

[84 ] 



r H E THIRD DAT 



Burning the brine, the histy rowers changed 

Tired arms for fresh, and all that still night through, 

And all next dawn to noon, and after noon, 

Until again the sun gilded the west, 

Watches, by watches, they did toil. But Kneph 

Had missed a sacrifice, or Ishtar's lamp 

Gone rashly scant of oil ; for while 'twas dark, 

At breaking of fourth day the morning star 

Went out behind black clouds, and a foul wind 

Drove leaping seas into our rowing ports. 

And drenched each deck-bench. Valorously the 

flute 
And drum kept measure ; valorously the oars 
Swung to the rowing song from ship to ship ; 
Yet how shall mortal strength resist the might 
Of the angry Gods ? All that long, heavy day 
We did not win a ship's length, and the next 
Hardly three leagues. Afterwards fell a calm ; 
A brazen sky arched o'er a seething sea ; 

A blaze of Dawn and Noon and Afternoon 

[ 85 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

Parching my patient comrades. By the blood 
Of Thammuz ! all my drinking water spent, 
My men a-dry and that shore still not near, 
Meseemed that we were lost in the outsetting. 

Came the ninth day whereat a hard wind blew 

Foul from the Eastward weakening what we did, — 

Too weak already. Nimroud drew his ship 

Abreast of mine ; the oars clashed and our sides 

Rasped with the swell. The Syrian captain sprang 

Insolent on my deck — an angry band 

Of bearded faces round him. Heretofore 

Thrice had I chided him for bests forgot 

And deeds undisciplined. Rebellion burned 

Desperate in his eyes : " Thou Magon's son 

Hast brought us here to perish ; one day's drink 

Remaineth, and thy fabled shore comes not. 

Send my poor rowers water ; if thou wilt, 

Steer thyself onward to thy realm of dreams, 

But give us of thy store and suffer us 

[ 86 ] 



THE r H I R D DAT 



To go back westward with the favouring wind ; 
Port may be reached, and those thou slayest saved." 

Thirsty and lean my oarsmen gazed on him, 
Half pleased to hear, half glad to disobey. 
One little spark may breed a mighty fire ; 
Their hearts were dry for flame. Shall this be end 
Of Pharaoh's hope? I mused; shall my Lord's will 
Wreck on one coward's raving? From his hand 
I wrested Nimroud's spear, drove its broad blade 
Deep in the traitor's breast ; stone-dead he fell 
Amid the oar-looms on the reddened deck ; 
And all the ship-folk and the rowers glared, 
And the sea idly played, tangling our oars. 
Then cried I, " Fling yon carrion overboard ; 
He dies who disobeys ; to your benches, men ! " 

Yet in my secret heart sorrow kept seat. 

How make the land with dying mariners? 

Had Nimroud reason? was it well to yield? 

[ 87 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Then, at my worst, did Lady Nesta lay 
Her hand on mine, and with the other point 
Southward of east where from the minghng Hnes 
Of sea and sky there rose a ruddy speck 
Touched by the morning, Hke the golden grain 
Upon a lotus leaf. She murmured '' Land ! 



--'f 



v^-'^^ 




There is thy shore — and mine ! " A mighty joy 
Flooded this heart. " Thou daughter of the Sun, 
May the Seven Nameless Ones yield thee for this ! 
That is my shore — and thine ; yet if we row, 
These cannot follow since their jars are dry ; 
In sight of prize we perish." " Nay ! dear lord," 
Quoth Lady Nesta, " give to Ram and Whale 

[ 88 ] 



r H E r H I RD DAT 



What drink we have, and bid them foUow up, 
While I do break for Ishtar's ship these bales 
Laid in my cabin ; twenty bales of fruit 
New to thine eyes. An unseen fruit it grows 
In the Arab vales ; 'tis the gold apple, kept 
By dragons, people tell, in guarded groves; 
I knew and bought. I did foresee this strait. 
I feared to fail — perchance at winning-point. 
Dread not ! Give them the water, and to ours 
These juicy globes distribute ; bid them eat, 
Then stoutly man their oars, for the wind drops 
And 'tis from westward now the current sweeps. 
By night we will be underneath yon hill. 
And fill the water jars." 

Yea ! so it fell ; 

The Silver Dove gave to the thirsty ones 

What drink she had ; the luscious fruit was sucked, 

Brightening all faces, strengthening all throats 

So that my seventy sang in frolic time 

[ 89 ] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

To music of the flute-player and the drum ; 
And, by the night, look ! we had touched a beach 
So sheltered that the sea did kiss it smooth 
With tender ripples, and a stream came down 
Out of a hanging wood, whence we did drink 
And drink, and drink, and thank the Gods for life. 

We beached below the Cape ;* a mighty rock 

Wheat-coloured, hath a sanded bay at foot, 

In shore a sandy hill ; its height I deem 

Five hundred cubits ; riseth from the sea 

Wall-like with sloping cap. Coasting along 

We skirt a yellow shore ; mimosa trees 

Marked where a stream stole out; then, past the 

sands, 
Dark broken rocks, and one brown cliff that sets 
His foot i' the waves and lifts his brow to clouds, 
Shenarif, so the fisher-people said. 
Afterwards long low beaches, backed with bush ; 

* Cape Guardafui. 
[ 90 ] 



r H E r H I RD DAT 



Next that, an inland range wherefrom juts forth 
A crag over the breakers. Farther on 
Fresh flats of sand, and pools behind the sand 
Noisy with sea-fowl ; birds that swim and wade, 
Long-legged and long-beaked birds, storks, peli- 
cans, 
Rose-plumed flamingoes, bitterns, cormorants, 
Tribes of the web and wing. To landward end 
A stream flows down, for sake of which the folk 
Had built their huts and many gardens round. 
Whom first we frighted. Never yet to them 
Had come such strangers nor been viewed before 
Garments of Egypt, or the Tyrian coats, 
Or vessels many-legged like water-flies. 
Dark hued they were, naked, or basely clad 
With belt or plaited leaves, or bark of tree, 
Their hair all shagged, dyed red. Not Nesta 

knew 
Not Handah and not Gondah what these cried 

Answering our words w^hen we did woo them back 

[ 91 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

From flight to make a marketing. Yet mild, 
Peaceful of mien, dwelling in houses small 
But trim and comely. So — in need of food — 
At bidding of my lady, no man touched 
Ripe dates or millet hoarded, but we laid 
For each ship's want a motley barter down — 




Cloth, and bright beads, and brass and iron 

blades — 

Wares which they crave ; by every heap was placed 

A stake wherefrom there swung the thing we lacked 

A fruit, some grain, meat, or a butter pot. 

This done in their full sight : then would we leave 

The barter heaps a-row and stand aloof 

[92] 



r H E r H I R D DAT 



Whilst our barbarians, returning soon 
Meted the stuff, and laid by every pile 
The goods which they would give in equal worth. 
Then they withdrew, and ours, gone up again 
Accepting what was fair bore that away ; 
What seemed not equal we did leave untouched, 
They adding more and more to make all just 
Till both were pleased and both went full away : 
The silent market ended. 

Coasting on, 

In three days from the cape we reach Hafun 

The '^ Wave-surrounded." 'Tis a neck of land 

Four leagues along and two full leagues athwart, 

Broken with hillocks, edged by beaches flat. 

And to the mainland tied by slender thread 

Of silvery dunes. This doth good shelter give 

Or here or there whichever wind do blow 

To fisher-folk who — for the fish abound — 

Drag their rude shallops to this side or that. 

[ 93 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Myself, because the north-east wind blew strong 
Bade Sothes, Hanno, and wise Hiram row 
Round the long neck to where a little bay- 
Lent certain peace. There did we cast our nets 
And took much finny food, but the great sharks 
Would ofttimes break our gear : the negro boys, 
Handah and Gondah, taught our Tyrians 
To slice their fins and dry them in the sun 
For broths, since out of evil cometh good. 

" Where goes my lord? " the friendly people asked ; 

And I, " We go as far as the sun goes : 

As far as the sea rolls ; as far as stars 

Shine still in sky; though they be unknown stars." 

Then they, " What seeks my lord ? " I gave reply, 

" To find for mighty Pharaoh what his world 

Holds hidden." But they did not know thy name 

Great King ! and softly laughed, and said " Who 

hunts 

What the Gods hide hath trouble for his pay. 

[ 94 ] 



r H E THIRD DAT 



Many have gone thy way, and some came back, 
But lean, and grey, and broken ; and they told 
Of savage men, and dreadful suns, and wastes 
Where snake and lizard die o' the scorch, and where 
The shadow of a man at high noon falls 
Between his feet unseen. And if there lay 
Some pool under a rock, if some stream flowed 
With welcome water, all the beasts around 
Sniffed it, and stamped it foul, and sucked it dry; 
While lions prowled and roared." " Nay but we 

go," 
I answered, " 'tis commanded." Then they spake 
Pointing black fingers west of south, " Go then ! 
But keep thy ships aloof from Mabbar there — 
We name it ' Stand-off Point ' — lest a storm break 
And trap thy vessels in the stony bay." 

But Ishtar favoured, and thy Gods, O King ! — 

Soft o'er the wooded neck a morning wind 

Bellied our sails; a cloudless sun arose 

[ 95 3 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H B A L 

Turning to gold the Dove upon my stem ; 

To gold the milk of the waves, to gold the foam 

Flung from our oars, which — bank by bank — made 

play 

As those three keels raced gaily. At moon-rise 

We saw the pale surf fretting round the head 

Thrusting and thundering into cave and cleft 

With echoing moans, and hiss of shingle dragged: 

By Isis ! 'twas a place to break a ship 

With a ship's company ! But we sailed wide, 

Holding the friendly breeze, and all that night 

And all next day — day of the eleventh moon — 

Merrily sped the Dove, and Ram, and Whale ; 

My lusty oarsmen drowsing in the sun ; 

The drum and flute at peace or striking up 

For frolic dance. In the warm air was taste 

Of life, and joy, and hope, grown breathable. 

Then did I know, dread King ! — my painted sails 

So filled, my lady's hair blown for a sign 

Straight onward, and the faces of my men 

[ 96 ] 



THE THIRD DAT 



Set to the look of such as fear no more — 

Then knew I that we should not fail. The barks 

Danced till the sunset down a rugged shore 

Where ran a wall of rock, till with last gleam 

We spy a red cliff; on this hand and that 

A saffron-tinted pinnacle; behind 

A darkish round-capped hill. From forth a gorge 

A river rills to sea ; about its mouth 

Huts cluster of the shore folk. After parle 

By sign and broken speech, we make fair friends, 

Let fall the sails, and beach. 

In the dry time, 
This stream, the people said, scanted and thin. 
Hath hardly flood enough to brim its bar ; 
But now we filled our jars at the sea's edge. 
Around my ships, under a grove of palms, 
A fence was fixed, by forty spearmen kept ; 
But we had peace. Soon, from the mountain 

gorge, 

[ 97 ] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

A caravan appears of inland folk : 

Swart merchants clad in bark, rude fighting bands, 

With shields of hide, and knives, and knotted 

clubs ; 
Slaves with the yoke-wood on their necks, and 

trains 
Of laden oxen, camels, horses, eke, 
A breed not seen before ; marvellous steeds 
Striped as a melon is, all black and white : 
Flanks, muzzles, necks, and hams, pencilled and 

pied 

Like a silk cloth of Sa'is ; these they said 

Ran wild behind the hills, but being broke 

Made gentle drudges. Goes a road, they told. 

Into the land, whereby these traffickers 

Wend and return, bringing their country stuff. 

And taking back what wares the coast affords. 

An easy path, they said, by Nogal vale, 

Well watered and the forests dark and cool. 

Whence we might pass, if we did will to pass 

[ 98 ] 



<r H E THIRD DAT 

To certain goodly game-lands in the hills 
Where, for the hunting, meat in plenty roved. 

So — lacking meat — with twenty chosen men 

And porters of the village ; Hamilcar 

And I, with Nesta, kept the company 

Of the home-going merchants. First a cleft 

Where the pent river fretted in its rocks 

GHttering to light 'mid dripping ferns and fronds, 

And diving into darkness where the path 

O'erhung its bed. So marched we half a day 

While the stream sang cool music in our ears ; 

And then beyond the pass a wood ; great trees — 

Their boles, O Pharaoh ! bigger than the shafts 

Which front thy palace, — and with buttressed roots 

Grew over dark green solitudes, and raised 

A leafy roof that noon's sun might not pierce. 

No undergrowth, no grass, no blooms, — for those 

We saw the butterflies : — by Isis ! lord ! 

Thou hadst not missed the flag-flower, or the lote, 

[ 99 ] 



'THE VOYAGE OF I^HOBAL 

The blood-red granate-bud or palm blossom 

Nor all thine Egypt's gardens, viewing there 

What burning brilliance danced on double wings 

From stem to stem, or lighted on the leaves 

Blotting the grey and brown with lovely blaze 

Of crimsons, silver-spotted, summer blues 

By gold fringe bordered, and gemmed ornament 

Alight with living lustre. One, all pale, 

The colour of the sunrise when pearl clouds 

Take their first flush ; one, as if lazulite 

Were cut to filmy blue and gold ; and one, 

Black with gold bosses ; and a purple one. 

Wings broad as is my palm with silvery moons 

And script of what the Gods meant when they made 

This delicate work, flitting across the shade. 

This breath a burning jewel, at the next 

With closed vans seeming like the faded twig 

It perched on, or the dry brown mossy bark. 

" See ! " Nesta cried, '' he hath a side for love. 

And life, and joy; for foes another side, 

=[ioo]= = 



r H E r H I RD BAT 



Lest they who hate him slay him : Master dear ! 
It is the law ; life is a brittle loan, 
Who makes good usance of it doeth well, 
But without craft and wit this cometh not." 

Round the great trunks, with deadly strict embrace, 

Caressing them to death like strumpets fair 

Who kiss to kill, the long llianas climbed — 

The giant creepers — snakes among the plants, 

Winding and winding till they come to crown, 

Then spread their lightsome leaves and poisonous 

fruit 

Bold in the sunshine. There four-handed folk, 

Monkey, and ape, and marmozet, long-tailed. 

Fur-bonneted, black-maned, with mocking eyes 

And old men's faces, chatter, scream, and crack 

The painted bush-rat's nuts, or filch from bees 

Their hoarded honey. Here some serpent-vine 

Hath choked its tree ; the strangled trunk is down 

Mouldering to dust, and the wise elephant, 

[loi] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Pacing the wood as though a black mount moved, 
With ponderous tread, breaks the proud ruin up 
And is not 'ware. There from some lower limb, 
In the green twilight, hangs the giant worm, 
Monstrous and mottled, with a bloomy sheen 




-CP-' 



On chilly gold and purples gleaming, tail 

Knotted upon the branch, the lithe, small head, 

With devilish eyes, and black, forked, slimy tongue 

Swings like an innocent spray till there shall pass 

With dainty hoof the unwitting antelope — 

And then — hell gapes! — the swift coils cling and 

crush : 

'Tis forest murder, as the Gods ordained. 

=[102] = 



rHE THIRD DAT 



"See!" murmured Nesta, "here was one whose 

foot 
So swiftly sped that ere the dust of it 
Had time to settle she was out of sight : 
And here is one, the python, huge and still, 
Drags sleepy coils on the slow-measured earth ; 
And yet the swift is slain, the sluggard feeds, 
Because 'twas so decreed, and the law stands, 
That lives, by lives, pass unto other lives." 

After the forest came an upland. Here 
The trees thinned out, the river spread its bed. 
By waving reeds and watergrass in flower 
On each bank margined. Yet another day 
Through thorny bush, high grass and aloe-spears 
Our march led, till a path turning to hills 
Bent southward. Then we quit our caravan. 
And come, by cHmbing, to a table-land 
Spreads wide and wide, with thorn trees scattered 
thick 

r^=z:[io3]=: 



THE VOYAGE OF I "T H O B A L 

Far as the eye could see. All silently 

We thread a thicket; at its verge, our guide 

Bids gaze ; and lo ! Great King ! such sight to view 

As did amaze my Tyrians and me. 

Gracious the scene was: Syrian hills are fair 

With golden crocus and the rose-laurel 

And scarlet lilies every silver stream 

Enamelling; and goodly Egypt shews 

With palms, and temples, and its waving grain. 

But here a great park spread so bounteous 

For grass and grove, for rock and rippled stream, 

For shade and sunshine, for its swards and sands 

And far off bordering of dim blue hills, 

It seemed to be a garden of the Gods, 

Where we had pushed unwelcome. For that plain 

Was peopled, Pharaoh ! not like Sais here 

Nor thy royal towns — with thronging citizens 

Nor built upon with walls nor set with streets ; 

Rather a populous city of the wild ; 

A sylvan capital inhabited 

[104]^= 



r H E THIRD DAI 



By creatures of the fur and hoof. In troops, 
In herds, in hosts, they pastured on the green, 
Scoured o'er the flying sand, ran merry rings 
For sport, or joy of hfe, or amorous play: 
A thousand myriad beasts ! beasts of all breeds 
That mead and forest rear. Some may men see 
Even by Nile, and some were never seen 
Till so we broke into their pleasaunces. 
Only the Lady Nesta knew their names : 
Antelopes, pied and spotted ; antelopes 
Like great white bulls and cows ; black antelopes 
Horned as with spears ; and one, purple with cream, 
Having striped shanks, dropped flanks, and ass's 

tail 
And four soft horns;* striped horses, beasts which 

bore 
Bull-necks and limbs of deer ; great armoured pigs 
With horny snouts ; and long-necked estridges 
Flapping black wings. But most of all, I marked 

* The okapi of Sir H. H. Johnston. 
[105] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

That mighty wondrous brute, theretofore seen 

Only in hieroglyphs at Ombos, tall 

As thrice my stature, dappled like a pard, 

Yellow on white, with long, wide, shambling legs, 

Hoof, tufted tail, sloped withers, stretching neck 

Four cubits long, having flesh-horns on head, 

And limpid eyes. The gentle monster grazed 

In tree tops, with a dainty lip and tongue 

Culling gold balls from the mimosa bough. 

I would have spared, but those with Hamilcar 

Slew it, and stripped the hide, and lay it here 

To be thy carpet. Other beasts roamed there 

Countless and curious ; shaggy lions, lords 

Of field and forest, held, in solitude. 

Their savage court apart. Grave elephants 

Swung past in stately files ; grey river-hogs 

Grunted for roots : the painted leopard laid 

The roses of his golden coat at rest 

On the forked branch. 'Twas like another world 

Whereto men come not and the beasts are kings. 

[io6] ^ 



r H E THIRD DAT 



Yet we lacked meat, and soon with spear and bow 

From those fleet foresters our hunters drew 

Tax for the ships. But that same day thy slave 

Had perished, ere his purpose could be won, 

Save for my lady and the guardian Gods. 

While we did follow on the trail of game. 

At entry of a thicket, Nesta cried : 

*' 'Ware, O my Life ! I see a sign of fear : 

A spotted wolf has crossed us to the left. 

And twice the eagle-owl doth warn me back. 

This path is dangerous — ah ! have a care." 

But I, hot with the chase, went heedless on 

Sighting my quarry and, with shaft on string, 

Was striding fast when, following faithfully — 

Her light foot never weary, knowing well 

All woodland marks — Nesta did seize my gown, 

And whispered, " Master, look ! notest thou not 

Yon grass across our path hath not its hue 

Of native green ? Why grows it sere and bent ? 

Why lies it shaped and smooth ? I pray thee fling 

[1073 — = 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B J L 

This great stone at the place." Why I obeyed 
Hardly I know, but hurled the fragment there, 
And where it struck the false earth opened wide, 
The lying swards sank down ; gaped a big pit, 
Black, deep, and steep, dug in the hunting path, 
Set thick with sharpened stakes — the wood-folks' 

way 
To snare their food; — so did thy servant 'scape. 

Next pushing from the shore with favouring wind 

We sail across a bay to '' Serpent's Head," 

First of three cliffs, planted like towers in the 

sea, 
Sundered some half a league. Then, — for the 

moon 
Lighted our way, and the night airs blew kind, — 
Down a long desolate land our galleys steered. 
Where nothing showed, no clustered huts, no 

glow 

Of hunters' fires, or village torch, or gleam 

[io8] =^ 



"T H E THIRD DAT 



Of shallop's sail, or paddle of canoe. 

Only wild rocks, by scorching suns burned bare, 

Under the moonbeams grey and black; thick 

bush 
Edging the tawny sands, wherefrom we heard, 
Commingling with the moaning of the surf, 
The roar of prowling lions. 'Tis a tract 
They call " the low shore "; by thy life! a place 
Hard and unlovely as Amenti's gates. 
Nathless when fell the night-wind all three ships 
Manned oars and rowed with will; for we were 

fresh. 

Rested, well fed. So all day long those blades 

Tripped to the music of the flute and drum 

Over the ocean floor; and jocundly 

Rower from rower took the sweat-stained oar. 

On evening of third day when we were spent 

And evil weather lowered southwardly, 

I seek a cape, juts friendly to the sea. 

By two small islands shielded, where we find 

=[109]^= 



"t H E VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Fair shelter, and make commerce with a tribe 
Of peaceful fishers. 

Then, by hanging crags 
And rock-strewn beaches, w^ith a range to north 
Of towering mountains, we do skirt a coast 
They name the Uplands. Outside on the main 
The waves roll high, but under reef and shoal 
Quiet paths help us till the great sea sleeps 
And once again by moonlight, wafted on, 
Without an oar we passed Sharoti's huts ; 
Sail down beyond a black hill hung with woods ; 
Till moored at Attelet, where long reefs lend 
Good shelter-spot, we wait the northern winds, 
Which, gently breathing, bring us plain in view 
Under a hill, a rock, shaped like a sail 
Seeming to round a castle-fashioned crag 
Washed by the surf. 

Still speeding on, we come 

Beyond Shangani and a shallow bight 

[I lo] 



THE rHIRD DAT 



To Merka, on a sandy mount. And here 

A pilot from the savage people told 

The coast-names and the course to steer. At eve 

By Brawa he would have me take the Dove 

Outside the reef which gave to Ram and Whale 

Good refuge, saying that my ship " rode deep." 

But at the southern end a current brake 

Against the wind. The channel we would seek 

Boiled with a sea-race. If right on we hold 

The rocks must take us ; if we try the gap, 

Short wavelets, breaking angry, drown my ship. 

Already hardly can the rowers keep 

Their benches, and the curHng brine bursts in. 

I was at loss : I cried, " The oar-ports plug ! 

Make fast the hatches! Come, for your lives, to 

deck ! " 
When Nesta, at my side, fearless and calm. 
Whispered me, " Master ! no sea-lore have I, 
But on our great sweet waters twice and thrice 
I have beheld a strange thing done at this 



:[III]: 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Which ended well. Suffer thy servant here 

A little of her will." At that she turned 

Where, at her cabin entry, swung a lamp 

Lighting the image of her country's God 

Done grim in gold and ivory : for whom 

By night and day she fed that flame. The lamp 

Held of the sunflower oil two measures full; 

This did she seize, and with her lithe strong wrist 

Flung it to windward. By thy life, O King! 

Soon as that oil did fall upon the sea 

It mingled, spread and widened in a film 

Of diverse colours which enchained the waves 

Breaking their crests down, flatting what was worst 

And hardest of their rush ; so that no more, 

Tho' 'twas at roughest in the middle race. 

The green hills leapt on board : scarcely one crest 

Wetted our deck ; my galley safely steered 

Into the channel : Nesta with her slaves — 

The two Egyptian handmaids kneeling here — 

Laughingly tying up her sea-drenched locks. 

[112] 



THE rHIRD DAT 



So came we, nothing harmed, down all that shore, 

Ever inside the reefs, skirting a land 

Was all red stone and bush, and hanging shelves 

Of sand and rock which took the ceaseless rage 

Of tumbling billows, in a noise and spume 

Terrible, deadly. Yet the Silver Dove 

Flew straight and sure, till at a river's mouth 

We entered glad. The black folk name the stream 

Juba. The place was good : we rested there. 



END OF THE THIRD DAY 



:[II3]: 



Ube ffourtb Dap 

Ithobal sails the Unknoivn Sea 
Where divers gestes and merveilles be ; 
He haih a dream 07i Afric^s strand 
The meaning strange to understand, 

AY the King live in greatness, peace and 
strength ! 
May he have favour of the Awful Gods ! 
Thus far, O Pharaoh ! were thy vessels come 
By sailing of six moons ; in sooth so far 
There was another land and sea and sky. 

Think not thy servant^s tongue a lying tongue 

If he shall tell thee that while we put south, 

Day after day, and night succeeding night. 

Close-clinging to the shore, or, with fair winds. 

Scudding from point to point, the stars ye know 

In Egypt's dark and in the murk of Tyre, 

rii5] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITH O B A L 

Which go around the North Star and around, 
And have their seasons fixed to rise and set : 
All these sank low and lower in the sea 
Astern of me. And Ishtar's Star sank down 
Deeper and deeper towards the leaping waves 
Till, where we camped at Juba, look ! it sate 
No higher from the margin of the main 
Than shines thy pharos at the mouth of Nile. 

Moreover, as we measured league by league 
Of multitudinous billows and long coasts 
Forever leading south as if this Earth 
Stretched edge to Sun — nay ! and beyond the Sun — 
For, mighty Pharaoh ! where our camp was pitched 
Yon orb which rolls in gold through Egypt's sky 
And at his highest — even in the Crab — 
Here southwardly doth set — that self-same Sun 
Blazed northwardly and went to setting north. 
And rose in the northern east ; — I say new stars 
Week after week sparkled into our sight; 

[ii6] 



THE F O U R 'T H DAT 

New skies; new constellations: Oh! a world, 
A heaven, unviewed by any Mage or Seer, 
Unnamed by Soothsayers, Astrologers — 
Our eyes the first to watch its gleaming swarms. 
Brightest of all there grew up from the waves — 
One moon before the Star of Ishtar sank — 
A wondrous light,* four splendent orbs so ranged 
As are those four great jewels on thy breast 
O Mighty Pharaoh ! with one smaller star 
Like to thine emerald button, holds them back : 
A breastplate, target, or a cross, might be. 
Its shape nigh to four-square : we steered by it 
When the North Star went down and helped no 
more. 

The river runneth seaward 'twixt low banks 
Of tufted sand ; men may not find its mouth 
Passing aloof, unless one guide the eye 
Like our black pilot knowing well all signs; 

* Southern Cross. 
[117] 



r H E VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And, at dry time crafts cannot enter there 
By reason of a bar where great waves burst, 
Would wreck tall ships. But when the river brims, 
And sea swells full, galleys may make their way 
In quiet weather to the peaceful stream 
Flowing a bowshot broad 'mid sandy flats. 



sMk* 




Here huge scaled crocodiles drowse in the sun ; 
And mangroves, glossy-leaved, whose arching roots 
Are populous with creeping things and fish, 
Breathe forth at sunset poison. Yet, inside 
Strong mind I had to stay and fill my ships 
With meat and meal, and learn where we had come 

[118] — 



THE F O U R r H DAT 

And what the peoples were, and if, beyond, 

Lay secrets hidden for my lord the king. 

Long parle, and perilous we held ; their chiefs — 

Bedecked for battle, clad with lion skins 

Or monkey-fur or spotted leopard's pelt — 

Sat fierce along the beach, their warriors 

With spears, and shields of hide, and bows, and 

clubs, 
Waiting for word of peace or war. I bade 
My trusty Tyrians gird their swords ; we stood 
Ten-score stout men who knew not fear — with 

those 
Aboard, sufficient guards. I would not brook 
From the wild men ill-dealing ; but my guide. 
My star of women — Nesta — murmured me: — 
" Suffer their ways a little, 'twill be well ; 
They do consult their Gods." Thereat she used 
Strange words seemed sweet to them; but these 

beat heads, 

In sudden reverence on the sand, and clasped 

[119] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

' ■ ■■■■ - ■ -.I -^ 

Hands across breasts as though a Goddess spake; 
Then brought their sorcerer — a painted priest, 
Hung with men's bones, and teeth of snake, and 

beads, — 
Who, with dark arts, and magic mumbled spells, 
Plucked, from a basket near, a cob of corn ; 
Laid it on earth, then grovelled, moaned, and 

writhed : 
And where the corn was, look! a little snake! 
Whereat the savage people yelled for war. 
But Nesta spake again ; then took a shaft 
From Gondah's quiver; laid it on the earth. 
Drew from her breasts the little amulet 
Which helped her at her prayers; and, clasping 

this. 
Bowed down over the arrow. When she raised 
That fearless visage, lo ! no arrow there ! 
But a long, glittering, green, lithe serpent hissed. 
Which seized the sorcerer's worm and swallowed it. 
Then the wild people shouted loud, " Peace ! peace ! 



r H E F O U R r H DAT 

Peace with the strangers ! " And they bring much 

gifts 
And kiss the fringe of Lady Nesta's gown, 
And lay their foreheads on her feet ; whilst I 
Made question of my mistress whence her craft : 
But she, her hps set firm, softly replied : — 




" My silence steads thee better than to tell ; 
Things seen are not so true as things unseen; 
The Gods are with us ! be content, sweet Sir ! " 



Thereat we took the ships in. From the hills, 

Thirty days' journey ofif, the river came 

Broad, lined by canes, with deep pools interspaced 

[121] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Where the great river-horses rolled and washed 
And strange things stole to drink, — the water-buck, 
The long-faced hartebeest, quilled porcupines, 
Crooked-tusked wart-hogs, sable antelopes, 
The grey sagacious elephants, and he, 
Who roams tyrannous lord of all the woods. 
The tawny lion. And there flocked strange birds, 
Bustards, and many-coloured doves, and kites. 
Waders, and fishing-fowl, and birds with ears, 
Which slay the lizards ; and another, calls 
The hunter to the tree where honey hides. 
Here a whole moon we moored, and beached our 

keels. 
And freed them of sea-grass, and hacked away 
Sea-shells, and brine-rust from the bilge. We made 
The leaks all good, with juice which flows like milk 
From wounded trees, but dries to pitch, and binds. 
Also we mended well what was amiss 
In hull and gear, and roped our sails anew ; 
Re-stowed the holds, and laid for ballast there 

=r[i22] — - 



THE F O U R r H DAT 

Millet, and sesamum, and shark-flesh dried. 
Alack ! I lose upon the channel here 
Five of my faithful ones; a river-horse 
Seized in his massive jaws a shallop's side; 
Crushed the frail boat, and of the six within 
Only did Sothes 'scape. And twice in sleep 
The crocodiles dragged down a Tyrian. 
Then fever took my crews ; some score had died 
Till Lady Nesta taught us where to find 
A herb was bitter, with a lance-head leaf 
And purple blossom ; and the broth of this 
Did surely cure. Whilst the ships lay at rest 
We rode the river upward until rocks 
And headlong rapids stayed us. Was a town 
Of peaceful naked folk, set in a grove 
Of nut trees : — 'tis a stately, gallant growth, 
Will yield you twenty-score for food, or give 
The sweet tree milk in its own ivory cup. 
The town was walled with thorn lest lions snatch 
Sleepers by night, or enemies assail; 

[123] — 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Or those four-handed tribes, the long-tailed apes, 
Steal the ripe nuts. There came a caravan 
Of traders from the hinder-land ; we spake 
With their chief peoples. Wonderful to hear 
Their stories of the secret world beyond. 
Fifty days' march inland — a mount they said 
Lifts its long ridge a league-high to the air, 
And hath forever in the burning blue 
A crown of snow. And yet beyond, vast seas* 
Shut in the hills, where one might row and row 
Eight nights and days and not reach nether shore. 
Moreover, from this mighty hollow flows 
A broad strong river, leaps in thunderous fall 
Down a vast steep : then runs north — north — aye ! 

north — 
Whither none wotteth. O my lord the King ! 
Maybe this is the fountain of thy Nile ! 
Not Lady Nesta knew ; her country lay 
Far off — far ofif — she said ; yet she had viewed 

* Victoria Nyanza. 
[124] 



THE F O U R r H DAT 

Wide inland waters; had heard speech of men 
With tails, of pigmy men dwelling in woods ; 
Naked, dust-coloured, using poisoned shafts; 
Of men that lived around a towering mount. 
With changeless cap of snow, who ate their kind, 
And made dark sorceries. 

We put to sea 
Scantier in company, but well refreshed. 
Refitted, good for toil, glad to steer on 
Whither the Gods might lead and thy great will. 
Yet of the coast-folk none would sail with us 
Save one grey ancient knowing of the bays 
And lacking for his withered belly meat. 
" Ye go," they said, " to death ! there is a way ; 
We wot the road ; but not how to return. 
Best die in daylight : not in night and hell." 
Still we stood forth ; fair ran the rippled sea ; 
New-painted on its wavelets shone the ships ; 
Under our stems, like birds before a plough, 

[125] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Over the silver furrows flying fish 

Darted in flocks; white sea-birds, wide of wing, 

Soared round our masts, and screamed for orts; 

before. 
Behind us, gambolled dolphins, glossy-black. 




Pearl-bellied, mocking with their speed our oars. 

Full fed, by friendly winds favoured and moon, 

Down a long coast we scudded, rimmed with sand 

And then red hills ; and, by the daytime, isles 

Crowding along the sea : in shore of these 

The rolling waves ran low. We passed flat reefs 

Where sea-fowls nest, and sleek seals drowse i' the 

sun, 

[126] = 



"t H E F O U R r H DAT 



And then a rock, washed all around by waves, 
Built like a citadel ; one would believe 
This spot a fortalice, planned for some war. 
Afterwards the clouds lower, storm portends, 
Shelter were well. My dark-skinned pilot points 
Where two white patches on a sandy hill 
Mark refuge ; 'tis an island, thick with huts. 
Fringed with the mangrove-tree, who loves to dip 
Her feet in the salt. An inlet opens fair ; 
Our oarsmen strain to reach it ; while the sky 
Begins to blaze with lightning, and the sea 
Blackens beneath the thunder-clouds. My Dove 
Guides Ram and Whale into a still lagoon 
Where we ship oars and praise the Gods anew. 

'Tis seen that mercy breedeth love, O King ! 
My lady had for maidens, damsels twain, 
Bond girls of Egypt, Asenath and Seet, — 
Who tended her and tired her hair. Goodwill 
Had grown between the mistress and the maids ; 

— [127] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

For Nesta was born gentle ; and no soul 
Near her, but joyed in sunshine of her smile. 
The maids to bathe betook them in the creek, 
Swimmers of Nile, glad of their water-play ; 
Laughing they clove the milk-warm evening wave 
In strife who should be first to bring to deck 
Blue lotus-buds; and Nesta from the ship 
Beat her soft palms to cheer them. Presently 
A glitter of grey light beneath the green ! 
A black fin cuts the water ! Nesta cries : — 
" A shark ! the shark ! " and then her countenance 
I first saw fall ; for, 'twixt the maids and ship 
Steered the fierce murderer of the deep, aware 
Of his sure prey ; and they, aware of him, 
Bent anguished eyes on their pale mistress there. 
Death if none helped, death unto him who helped ! 
Then with set lips my mistress uttered word, 
Half prayer, half mandate, and those Africans 
Whose necks she saved from knife of Tyrian 

priest — 

[128] =- 



r H E F O U R r H DAT 

Saw — understood, — and for sweet duty's sake 
And love of her kind eyes, did this, O King ! 
A lance-head lay on deck, barbed at the point. 
The shaft new sharpened for its ashen pole 
A cubit long. Gondah strips off his gown. 
Grips the sharp steel, and rolls the cloth around, 
Leaping into the sea ; so Handah too 
Holding his fighting-knife. With this the boy 
Strikes at th' attacking fish, who hath in front 
Young Gondah swimming. Savaged with the 

stroke. 
The monster turns to seize ; opes his fell jaws, 
Toothed terrible, forgetting what he sought, — 
Those naked maidens. Look ! the fearless boy 
'Tween jaw and palate of that dreadful beast 
Thrusts the wrapped spike. The murderer closes 

down 

The cruel mouth, but hath a bridle fixed 

Will ride him to his death. Mad wallows he 

While Handah stabs and stabs. All impotent 

=[129]= 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Rolls the baulked fish into the crimsoned depths: 
The maids come trembling home. But Gondah's 

arm 
Was gashed from wrist to shoulder by those fangs : 
Mortal I deemed till Lady Nesta dressed 
The deep-cut wounds and laid some simples in, 
And bound all with fine linen, fair and spiced ; 
While at her feet the crouching African 
Gave his life, ten times over, with his gaze. 

Asquat upon the deck, munching his grain, 

Mine ancient conned the galleys southwardly; 

A low coast on the left, then close to shore 

A yellow island, Manda ; this we skirt 

Since the black pilot saith, " Lamu lies nigh, 

Where water is, and goodly markets meet.'* 

At Lamu presently we moor; a town 

Set on a long, low isle of silver sand. 

Fronting a river's mouth — " Ozi " 'twas named — 

The people friendly, liking well to trade. 



THE F O U R r H DAT 

We buy of sim-sim, in their bags of mat, 

Plantains and nuts, for linen cloth and beads. 

" Whither go ye? " they ask. " We go," I say, 

" As far as yonder coast goes stretching south; 

As far as yonder ocean thither rolls. 

Know ye the road ? " " The end of it we know," 

They answered ; " it is darkness — it is death ; 

It is where lives that God who suffers not 

That others live ; whose name, to utter it. 

Would make the thunder speak and the rains fall. 

Yet hence a little space the road is good. 

Ye shall come soon to islands of the sea: 

M'vita that hath fair harbours, Leopard's Cape, 

Malindi ; then Oyambu's creek and huts ; 

And after M'vita, looms the Isle of Spice — 

Pemba; and then the great rich Monkey-Isle — 

Zangue, where ye may find men to show course 

Nearer and nearer to what goal ye seek 

Outside the lawful waters. As for us. 

We will die where our fathers lived and died." 

[131] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

We beached at white Malindi ; coral reefs 
Break the grey billows ere they reach the sand. 
Northward, a sandy bluff; behind the beach 
Fan-palms, with flat crowned thorn-trees, and a 

plain 
Of goat-grass and ilook; innermore stands 
A range of hills. There was a cavern here 
Carved in the soft stone by a stream that broke 
Out of the woods ; and bowered fair and green 
With climbing flowers and plants that love the 

moist; 
And hanging canes, where golden lizards glanced 
And bright sun-birds, like living jewels, sucked 
The honey blooms. Outside, the blazing day; 
Within, cool gloom, and soft, clean cushions spread 
Of silvery sand. Its peace invited us — 
My lady and thy slave : for noon was red. 
And we had wandered far, glad of firm Earth, 
New from unsteady footings of the decks. 

At entrance I did lay my shoes aside, 

[132]^= 



r H E FOURTH DAT 

And hung my cloth on spear ; who enters then 
Unasked, must die : it is the Libyan law. 

I fell to slumber in that cavern, King ! 
And had strange visions. In my sleep I saw 
A Queen of stately stature, dark of hue: 
Dark, but most comely : oh ! a form and face 
Exceeding beautiful; the black, curled hair, 
Clustered on shining brow and velvet nape 
In such wise that no diadem was lacked 
To grace its jetty glory. Yet the head, — 
The sovereign head in majesty supreme — 
Albeit touched with sorrow, touched with shame — 
Wore a great crown was beat of burning gold. 
Bordered and bossed with jewels such as Thou, 
Lord Pharaoh ! keepest not in Treasure-House. 
For round its rim and on its circling bands 
Mingling with moony pearls had robbed the sea 
Of all its choicest wealth — glittered great stones 
Of sard and amethyst and lazulite, 

=[133] — = 



THE VOTAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Turkis and sapphire, beryl, jasper, jade. 
With rubies red as doves' blood, chrysoprase, 
Lucent as light of Spring, and adamants 
Which shut the dayshine in, and flashed it forth 
Like little suns. And on her shapely arms, 
Dark as the date's stone, softer than its bloom, 
Great armlets hung of hammered gold, set close 
With emeralds and coral. Round the neck, 
Carved like thy porphyry columns, black and 

smooth, 
A gorget, all of hammered gold, was clasped ; 
In shape a slave ring ; and the sweet strong breasts, 
Two hills of ebony entopped with rose. 
Were crossed and braced with the slave's shoulder- 
straps 
Done all in burnished gold. The Queenly One 
Lay, in a leopard's skin enwrapped, whose sheen. 
Dappled with night-black rayings and rosettes. 
Clung supple to the lovely waist, and took 

The bendings of her beauteous limbs. Her hands, 

=[i34] ~ = 



<r H E FOURTH DAT 



Moulded for force and tenderness, to grasp 

Shaft of swift spear, or coy a lover's cheek, 

Were manacled together with rude grip 

Of golden chains. And the fine feet of her, 

Carved of black alabaster, — nobler made 

Than ever Goddess yet in shrine or fane 

Had worshippers to kiss, — shook when they 

moved 
Links of a tinkling slave-chain wrought in gold. 

Thus bound she lay, this goodly youthful Queen: 
And only by her eyes — wonderful eyes, 
Full of disdain, half conquering her despair; 
Full of despair, half banishing disdain ; 
Lighted with pride and pity, sufferance, rage — 
Knew I she Hved. Her prison seemed a land 
Vast, various, gilded from the North to South 
By always shining summers ; rich with plains 
Of arable and tilth : with orchards grown 
Where birds and deer were gardeners ; with woods 

[135] 



THE VOYAGE OF I "T H O B A L 

Where giant trees made mansions of green light, 

Peopled by unknown tribes; with rivers born 

From horns of flower-clad mountains, lifting high 

Shoulders of snow into the burning blue, 

Taking their fruitful way through valleys, fair 

With blossoming reeds and floating lotus-buds 

And feathered waving canes, and then made pools 

In bosom of their hills, which were like seas 

So wide from coast to coast. Deserts were there. 

Dry barren deserts where the spotted wolf 

Findeth no drink but blood ; and antres deep 

By ill-folk habited; and poisonous swamps 

Where none might pass and live. The wilderness. 

The waste, the marsh, the barren upland scrub 

Where wild beasts rage ; these things did lie around 

That prisoned Lady's bed, shutting her ofif — 

Or so I deemed — from help and humankind. 

Yet there was help, for at her girdle swung, 

Thonged to its perfect work of beaded seeds, 

Two keys of gold. As if by some two locks 

[136] 



r H E F O U R r H DAT 

Which these might open — were there friendly aid — 

Way would be found to set that bound Queen free ; 

To give her lovely life and mistresshood, 

And all for which the Gods had fashioned her : 

So rich, so beautiful, so noble ! Nay ! 

One bar did let and hinder ! Round this land 

Ran two wide borders, blue, immense, profound; 

Beset with dreadful perils, hard to cross. 

Long to unfold, which must be nathless crossed, 

Must be unfolded, — this way first, then that, — 

Ere the sweet Queen could rise. 

And then, dread Lord! 

I saw the silver dove of Ishtar light 

At those sad, captive feet, as when it drew 

Mine own steps to the slave-bazaars in Tyre; 

And in its beak a sunflower seed, which means 

" I follow, follow always " ; and I heard 

Murmured from that most sovereign mouth the 

words, 

— [137] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

" Ithobal, son of Magon ! succour me ! " 

And I, — ''But how, most Noble? " And she sighed, 

" With ships, thou Tyrian ! And with these gold 

keys." 
Then seemed I once again aboard ; yet ah ! 
What waste of waters ! what mad whirl of waves ! 
What dreadful rocks ! What shores that slide and 

sHde 
Out of the blue of sky into sea's green 
And back into the blue; and never cease 
And never turn, or turn only to show 
New coasts that trend north, north and always 

north; 
Till the strayed sun, that set upon our right, 
Dips on our left again ; if we come live 
To the ocean-gates I know and come with ships. 
Yet in my vision. King ! I had but two. 

Moreover, Lord! I dreamed strange sequent 

dreams. 

[138] 



THE F O U R r H DAT 

Years rolled, and reigns and generations. Nay ! 
Thy realm had passed : thy piercing Pyramids 
Had melted into bltmtness with the suns 
Of sweeping centuries. Yet, while those sped 
Folks found, it seemed, the imprisoned Queen and 

brought 
Some help and homage. In my vision shewed 
Men in white garments, Arab men who bore 
Money and gifts, taking away for these 
Ivory, and gold, and slaves, and spiceries. 
And there rose kings, black lords of flattened face 
And iron breasts, who ruled the tribes by blood 
And kept what peace they knew. Then at the last 
Strange mariners I saw sail from the West; 
Their chief of noble bearing, bearded, fierce. 
With galleys four came downward on my track, 
And round the dreadful Cape and put to north, 
Where I had southward rowed and southward 

sailed ; 

Until in this same cavern where we lay 

==[139] — — ■ ■ 



'THE VOYAGE OF I <r H O B A L 

I saw him stand and gaze towards the port 
Where his bruised fleet did anchor. Then I heard 
The imprisoned Queen sigh, — " Ithobal of Tyre, 
The blue wide barrier hath been rended twice ! 
The sea's stern girdle falls away from me ! " 

Yet did my vision hold. White faces came 

More and more frequent through the perilous belts, 

The thirsty desert, the enfolding hills. 

The murderous tribes, the lion-haunted wilds, 

The slave-paths, and the burning villages, 

To where the Lady dwelled. But prone no more ! 

No more in chains ! She sate upon a throne 

Carved out of tusks and gold, with jewels decked. 

Draped with her own royal robes : the sweet proud 

eyes 
Gleaming with joy and grace of fresh life found; 
While Ishtar's dove cooed, and my dream was done. 

But Nesta laid her face between her palms. 

And bowed her head, and kept long silence. Then 

=[140] : 



THE F O U R T H DAT 

She lifted on me look of tenderness, 

And spake these words : " Master ! be comforted ! 

Thy dream is good and true, and giveth thee — 

What the Gods may — to see drawn back the veil 

Hiding the things that will be. These will be ! 

Long, very long hereafter they will be. 

She whom thou didst behold chained and alone. 

Sore-suffering, shut away from love and hope; 

She was my Africa, my darkened Land, 

My hid, forgotten Land ; whose child I am. 

Whose lover; and for whose sake I have lived 

To be thy mate and guide. Her days begin ! 

Ithobal's ships, much-daring, shall break through 

The sea-bars — blue, immense, — that hemmed her 

in; 

And there shall come to her adventurers 

Seeking her gold — for that is how the keys. 

Fashioned of gold, feign way t' unlock the gates. 

And with gold-seekers shall go merchantmen, 

And tramp of many caravans; and trade 

[141] 



^ THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Which, pushed with blood, shall end in peace and 

wealth. 
Nay ! Stay ! " she said ; " also I see that one 
Who doubleth back on this sea-track of thine, 
And Cometh hither to our very cave 
Twenty-one centuries hence : a western chief, 
Iberian, swart and brave : the voices say 
His name to me in Greek: I wist not what; 
I wot not why : but they bid write it so." 
Thereat,* on the white sand, with lids shut close 
And slow-moved finger, this mark she did trace 



F 



I know not and she knew not wherefore thus ! 
But 'tis a letter of Cohans. 

A little while she paused; then from her breast 
Drew forth the precious amulet of gold 

* Nesta foresees Vasco di Gama, who did visit Malindi. 
^=[i42]n= 



<r H E FOUR'TH DAT 

That helped her at her prayers, and clasping this 

Dropped o'er her face her headcloth; lay awhile 

Cowering and crouched : then she spake once again : 

'' This is a high deed which Thou doest, Lord ! 

Mother of many deeds ! Past thee and him 

And those who follow, and the acts to be, 

And the long patience of the waiting Gods, 

I see my Land with Sister Continents 

Sisterly seated : her dark sons I see 

From wars and slave-yokes freed. These sunlit 

shores 
Happy with traffic, while a thousand ships 
Sail on the waves first clove by Ithobal." 
This was my vision, Pharaoh ! in the cave. 

South from Malindi ran we with soft airs 
Breathing off shore; so did I let all drive 
Over warm waters, under scorching skies 
To the green island Pemba, where w^e lay 
Safe anchored in a shallow gulf, was lined 

~ [1433= ^= 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

With spice-brush and the pale green aloe-spears 

And the wild tree-wool; for a hard wind came 

Hot from the south, and far away at sea 

Pillars of cloud and water passed; storm-whirls, 

Which with fierce rage and furious roar uptore 

The heavy, rolling billows, flinging them 

In scud and spume into the tortured air, 

Which howled and twisted till the heavens seemed 

brine, 
Hiding the sun. In such a water-spout 
My galleys had been as the gnats that drown 
Where Nile leaps wildest. But our sailors burned 
Sweet incense to the Sea Gods; and next morn 
The tempest spent its wrath, the loud winds lulled ; 
Lightly we set from Shaki, steering straight 
For Zangwe — 'tis an island, great and fair, 
Sitting along the coast ; with downs and woods 
And harbour looking to the sinking sun 
Where we made port, seven moons of voyage done. 

END OF THE FOURTH DAY 

=[144] 




XHpfllitK 



Zbc Jfittb Da^ 

Ithobalj ever sailing Souths 
Enters at many a river's mouth ; 
Through fair and foul; ^ mid joys and woes 
Unto the land of gold he goes. 

EALTH and longevity to Egypt's King! 
The Mighty Pharaoh! May the all- 
seeing Gods 

Grant thee good peace ! We lay at the great Isle 
Till the moon filled her sickle to a shield; 
Then, heartened, sailed again into the South. 

How oft we beached, how oft we crept for fear 
Behind reef-wall; how oft — save for Kneph's help 
And Ishtar's mercy — we had seen our ships 
Splintered on savage cliff or lurking rock, 
Or by huge hissing billows overwhelmed 

'Twere long to tell, nor good, O Lord of Lords ! 

- [145] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

For patience of thine ear. Still southward rolled 
The unbroken coast, white, yellow, red, or brown, 
Rugged with headlands, rounded with low dunes, 
Beached with black stones, or silvery sands, or belts 
Of the mud-loving mangrove. So we passed 
Upanga's bluff, and where the low shore holds 
" The House of Peace " : Sinda, Koronjo's reef, 
Kutani's ruddy wall, Mafia's Isle 
With angry breakers fenced ; Rufiji's mouths 
Where Sea-cows live,* which have a tail and fin 
And fishy forms : yet — I lie not, O King ! 
Breasts of a woman and give suck. 
We spy Mirambe's brow and, o'er Kirinje's huts. 
Long flat-topped hills. Then the tall nut-trees wave 
On Songa. Thence athwart two shallow gulfs, 
Nondo and Kuvu, unto Lindi's stream — 
Good watering; — and hard by, the Mushroom 

Rock, 
Madjovi. So through Mnazi's sheltered smooths 

* Manatee. 
[146] 



r H E FIFTH BAT 



To where Rov'uma pours into the green 
Her turbid flood, with blood of many a slave 
Foul mingled. Then the Kongo Cape we round, 
Which seems an island as one sails from north; 
And slip, well-pleased, from storm and savage seas 
To timely shelter of the foam-washed reef 
Fronting its shore. 

These were the names we heard 
Of pilots, fisher-folk, and merchant-men 
Trading the marge with shallow feeble craft. 
Ill-rigged for evil weather; yet their seas 
Well known to them, and here they bid us mark 
The giant current * of mid-ocean. 
Part itself like a branching stream of earth. 
To flow this side and that. Next Ulu's Isles, 
Majumbi's coral crags; and then, in swarm, 
Islets, — Kerimba's archipelago ; — 
Imo and Fumo, and their sister rocks 

* Great Equatorial Current. 
[147] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

Perilous of approach; next, seven sharp hills 

Over Arimba; Pomba Bay behind 

Lent friendly haven. Skirting Pardo's point 

Dark hillocks show in the bush; follow steep slopes 

Rich-wooded ; then a hill, lofty and white, 

So shaped that one might deem, coming from north 

'Twas a great galley of thy Nile at sail. 

Afterwards, under lee of Mozambik, we rest. 

Well-covered. For a fierce wind drew 

Betwixt the main and certain sea-girt land 

Whereof they spake, towards the rising Sun, 

A mighty Island.* Being calmed, we rowed 

Across Mokambo Bay, and lay awhile 

In Mluli River where within the mouth 

A green isle towered, f inhabited by apes. 

By thy Soul ! Pharaoh ! even thou hadst smiled 

To watch the grave-tailed elders of the troop 

And monkey-mothers with their furry babes 

Viewing thy ships approach ; hardly less men 

* Madagascar. f Monkey Island. 

[148] — 



r H E FIFTH BAY 



Than those? who pushed from shore with food to sell 
On log or light canoe. 'Twas at the close 
Of the eighth moon we oared from Kiliman 
And came by rosy blufifs and running hills 
To where the deep sea darkened to the flood 
Flung by a lord of rivers, broad and deep, 
Far draining from the inland. 

'Twas a stream * 
Vast as thy Nile, dread King ! — Luabo named — 
Coming adown from distant hills and lakes 
Through full five hundred leagues of wild and 

wood, 
And falling to the salt by many mouths 
With black groves fringed, and barred by shifting 

sands. 
Yet, with full sea, and patient watch, a ship 
May happy entrance find. We lowered sails. 
And on the broad green rollers oared our way, 

* The Zambesi. 

[149]= 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

By ample channel, to the upper pool 
Where the great river rested, ere it gave 
Its tribute to the main. 

Under a tree 
Smooth-barked, with slender leaves, whose massive 

trunk 
Ten of my Tyrian rowers, clasping hands, 
Could not encompass, we did set the camp. 
Thorn-girt, well guarded, for the folk were rude. 
The country troubled. Yet these eyes have seen 
No fairer. King ! for sylvan majesty 
And wonder of the works the high Gods mould. 
'Twas the beasts' home, — man came a stranger 

there. 
If one did wander on the river's marge 
A world of forest creatures stole to sight. 
The bush-pig squeaked; the wart-hog, in the 

reeds. 

Grunted and wallowed; shaggy bufTaloes 

[150] 



r H E FIFTH DAT 



Cropped the young grass between the ant-hills; 

deer 
Mottled and dappled, darted through the brake; 
Bush-buck, and water-buck, roan antelopes. 
And sable antelopes; and o'er the open waste 
The stately elands roamed, with bearded gnus. 
The kudu snorted from the thorny flat, 
From waving marishes where bitterns fished ; 
And river-horses bathed and crocodiles 
Dried their grey bulk i' the sun, and with cold eyes 
Blinked for their prey. Yet was it wondrous. King ! 
These would not slay their friends ! A spur-winged 

bird 
Ran frolic o'er the monster's scaly spine, 
And from his frightful jaws picked water-lice, 
While round his couch of slime the painted duck 
Sported ; flamingoes preened their rose-red wings ; 
The great grey herons slept upon one leg; 
And all those river things had peace of him. 
Such is the jungle law ; yet, if a doe 

[151] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Timidly tripped to drink, if careless slave 

Drew nigh to fetch of water; look ! a rush 

Of that live log ! a snap of rending teeth ! 

And peace was broke, and the stream bloodied. 

Turn 
Into the grove of green mimosa trees 
Gilt by ball-blossoms, and we heard the doves — 
Bright plumaged, with the jewelled necks, and 

feet 

Sandalled in red — coo love from branch to branch 

Forgetful of the falcon on the crag 

And fierce king eagle circling in the blue. 

The crowned cranes stalked about the silent pool; 

The snowy egrets fed; the sacred birds 

Of this thine Egypt — the staid Ibis — paced; 

From hollows of the towering trunks by pairs 

The horn-bills brayed ; from purple bunch to bunch 

Of the wild vines starlings — gold, ruby, blue, — 

Sparkled ; and coloured finches piped and pecked ; 

Small busy weavers built their hanging nests 

[152] 



THE F I F r H DAT 



To spite the robber snake, whose stealthy coils 
I' the dead leaves glistered. 



With a chosen band 
Of fearless ones, and followers from the tribes 
We mounted — three canoes — the splendid stream 




Many days rowing. For the people said 
High up was sight of marvel — spot they named 
The '' Smoke that Speaks." * Sometimes with pad- 
dles plied. 
Sometimes with cords, we made a perilous way 
By gorge and rapid where the strong flood raced 

* Falls of the Zambesi. 
[153] 



THE VOYAGE OF ir H O B A L 

Through rocks all foam, and hanging boughs; 

sometimes 
The channel sobered, and then came to ear 
From far aloof a murmur, night and day, 
Like whispering thunder. Now we quit the boats ; 
Strike through the forest; march three days — the 

noise 
More and more filling all the air with roar 
Unspeakable, — and, where the forest clears. 
Away over the tree-tops hang great clouds 
Lighted to golden white under the sun. 
Thick black against the moon-beam. At the end 
My band steps forth upon a level place 
Fronting the dreadful glory. King of Kings! 
Ithobal knoweth not to tell this sight ! 
The river — broad as is thy Nile in flood — 
Comes from the nameless lands, green out of blue, 
Comes from its purple hills, majestic, brimmed, 
Its tide of silver quickening as it feels 
The awful abyss draw. A long, low isle, 

[154] 



THE F I F r H DAT 



Whereon the moist airs breed a lavish growth, 

Cleaves it in twain ; then, as if loath to part 

And mad to join again, the sundered halves 

Plunge o'er the edge. Seemeth as if they hung 

Fixed in their very leap ; a curl of green — 

Green as the light that strains through fan of 

palm — 

Sits constant on the dizzy precipice 

Down which the splintered river rages. See ! 

Just here the earth hath opened ; the torn rock 

Gapes to a night-black chasm, lit above, 

Deep-black, death-black below. From this boils up 

A steamy smoke as if Amenti there 

Bubbled and raved ; and with the smoke the sound 

Of a whole sky throbbing with thunder-blasts. 

Sheer over rim of clifT, half a league long. 

Into this hold of ravage and of wrath. 

And flying spume, and murk impenetrable, 

Dives desperate the river, dives adown 

Three hundred cubits, if I judge aright, 

[155] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And wildly mingled in its cauldron there, 
The broken monstrous masses lace and lock 
And ramp and rear ; then bursting forth to light, 
Go tossing under rainbows and wet rocks 
And shuddering leaves, into a narrow gorge 
Crosses athwart their course, scourging their rage 
Into fresh-leaping furies ; till this bulk — 
Come from the fountains of a continent — 
Gains room to calm ; and in wide reach below 
Slackens its sparkling angers, stays its speed. 
Clears from its waves the bubbles and the spray 
And, placid once again, lord of itself. 
Goes bright and gentle to the awaiting vale. 

'Twas tenth moon since the starting from thy 

shores, 

O King of Kings ! the light half of the moon. 

At ebb wx dropped to sea by western mouth 

Of vast Luabo — Lady Nesta guide — 

For on that river there had lodged with us 

[156] 



THE F I F r H BAT 



Men of the upper country, merchant-men, 

Tall and of comely visages, with garb 

Richer than wont. Whose speech, when Nesta 

heard, 
I marked her great eyes brighten, and her lips 
Half-open as to utter some glad word; 
Yet did she hold her peace, of counsel wise. 
But afterwards in private, clasping hands. 
Whispered me thus : " Heart of my heart, dear 

Lord! 

I spake thee true, telling of lands I knew 

Outside all lands and seas beyond all seas; 

And how, in tender years, they tore me thence 

A captive girl, the daughter of a King; 

And how by long, long journeys I was borne 

Northward and north, entreated tenderly 

For reason I was meek and fair to see : 

And how in those ill days, my sad eyes saw 

The darkness and the anguish of my Land ; 

Till night by night I dreamed of one should come 

[157] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

Fearless and masterful, with ships and men, 

And find us out, and break the bonds of Hell 

And be beginning of a glorious dawn. 

Lo ! this hath fallen : those within our camp 

Come from my country. What they speak is 

speech 

Of her who suckled me; of him who died 

Fighting to save his folk. They know me not. 

But bear good news, unwittingly. The Prince, 

My brother, ruleth. All his land is still ; 

The pastures full of kine, the markets brisk, 

The caravans eager to come and go ; 

And that which in thy home men most desire, 

Thy priests, thy lords, thy kings, Pharaoh himself. 

The gold, — the rich red gold, — is boundless there ; 

Glistens in river-sands; gleams in the rocks; 

Is as a common dross. The road thereto 

Wends by a river, running to the sea. 

Fifty short leagues from this the Sabi named. 

Thou hadst desire, I know, some port to find 

[158] 



r H E FIFTH DAT 



Where we could plant our grain; and, while it 

springs, 
Careen thy ships, and make an enterprise 
To win by traffic some commodities 
Worthy of Pharaoh's feet. This is thine hour. 
Sail unto Sabi or to Pungwe's mouth — 
For those are neighbours — beach thine emptied 

hulls : — 
Fill them, refitted, with the harvesting 
Of wheat and barley. For what still remains 
Of this hard voyage, stretches vaster yet, 
More difficult, more dreadful than what's done. 
Yet shall we at the last attain. Dear Lord ! 
Follow my counsel. I will show the way 
To where a goodly ballast shall be got 
For Ram and Whale and Silver Dove." 

With that 

I launched and set to sea, ten moons being spent. 

In days twain, and one night, — the currents fair, 

[159] 



THE VOYAGE OF I t H O B A L 

But the breeze foul from south, — we made the 

stream, 
Pungwe. The coast Hes low ; a sloping beach ; 
Then thickets; and, 'mid these, sandhills which rise 
Shaped like thy pyramids. The tide, at spring, 
Lifts my three galleys lightly o'er the bar 
Into broad placid waters where a point 
Lends certain shelter. Like a wall of waves 
The flood comes in, filling the creeks and nooks, 
And, draining forth again to sea, lays bare 
Flats sudden and sharp spits, whereon you spy 
The idle crocodiles drowse in the sun; 
The river-horses wade forth of the deeps ; 
And turtles crawl to scrape a nesting place. 
Here it is well to be: we strand the ships; 
Build the stockades ; and open busy marts. 
Where the shore-people, swart, and clad in skins, 
Bring of their victuals, taking wares from us. 
Thereon my Lady hath devices : — shears 
The wool from Gondah's head ; pricks on the scalp 

[i6o] = 



THE FIFrH DAT 



The token of her tribe ; when hair is grown 
Sendeth him with a knot of trusty ones 
And native people, bearing curious gifts, 
Northward along the river ; while we pass 




By easy marches. The boy's one message was, 
Clip me and judge me by the sign." 



Then too 

I owe again this life — my King's and mine — 

To Nesta. On a day we meet in parle 

Chieftains and warriors of a warlike breed, 

Questioning passage, asking weighty tolls. 

We sit in circle on the river's brink : 

[i6i] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

They with their spears, my men with sword on 

knee, 

And there pass angry words. But soon one brings 

Wine of the country, brewed of millet seed. 

Heady and sharp, served new in woven bowls 

Of grasses; and the foremost black of them 

Signs that I drink, with many a peaceful nod. 

Whereat my watchful Mistress craftily 

Drops in the drink a leaf — I know not what : — 

Leaf of some flower, which withers, spits and turns 

Dull black. I marvel, but she murmurs " Lord ! 

He hath not drunk ; 'tis custom that they drink 

Before their guests." Hereon I bid him quaff: 

This vile one waxeth ashen ; yet I bid. 

Sternly entreating. They put by the bowl, 

Baflfled and anxious. As it standeth there, 

A village hound, unnoticed, laps the stuff, 

And, in a little, rolls its eyeballs, gasps. 

And falls, all foam and spasms, on the sand. 

The lying friendly draught was venomed ! King ! 

[162] 



r H E FIFTH BAT 



My heart grew hot : I clove the traitor's head 
From crown to chine. Shouting, the tribesmen 

rose 
And fled: there would be war. Five days and 

nights 
Swarmed they and buzzed like wasps around the 

camp, 

Shooting their shafts, firing the grass, intent 

To slay us if they might, and spoil our stores. 

On the sixth day, — we, being sorely pressed, 

Half a score Tyrians slain, with camp-followers, 

Water cut off, and valiant Hamilcar 

Hurt in the thigh, — rings from the hills a blast 

Of conches, a beat of drums; long fighting lines. 

With spears and shields, show brave upon the ridge. 

Who shout their battle-cry and leap adown. 

In files and painted squadrons, to the plain. 

Our foemen hear and fly. First of the host 

A youthful chieftain, clad in pelt of pard. 

Whose mounture is a striped horse of the wilds 

[163] — 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Caparisoned in gold, rides nobly forth 

With guard of well-armed men. Before our camp 

He doth dismount : a herald, feather-girt, 

Advanceth, crieth phrase of peace. But, look ! 

My Lady Nesta bids our gateway ope, 

Paceth serenely forth : only her maids 

Attending — Sect and Asenath. She strips 

The gemmed cloth from her silk smooth shoulder: 

See! 
Branded in red and white upon its round 
A lizard : — 'tis the mark Gondah's skull bore 
Beneath his wool. Which when the comely Prince 
Views, he cries lustily, like one distraught 
For utmost joy, and giveth loud command, 
And claps his palms hard, flinging first his spear 
After those fliers. Nesta, drawing nigh, 
What noise ! what tumult ! what mad ecstasies 
Of pride and pleasure ! 'Twas their Princess come 
Home out of bonds and darkness. Where she 

trod 

[164] = 



'THE F I F r H DAT 



Those fierce ones kissed the earth; to touch her 

gown 
Was honour : for the Prince and all his tribe 
Well knew the Makalanga lizard : sign 
Of '* Children of the Sun." Their clamorous glee 
Scared the lean vultures perched upon the slain. 
We were delivered and the road lay free. 

Then marked I how my Lady's words came true : 

Red gold grew here. Was hardly one of all 

But had it for the apple of his lance, 

Or pommel of his sw^ord, or wore it bossed 

On shield or sandal, or in burnished rings 

On neck and wrist and ankles. At their feast 

They served us broth and stews in golden pots. 

Roast game lay on gold dishes. 'Twas as bronze 

In Egypt, or as brass in Sidon's streets. 

For where this river issues from its hills — 

Wonderful granite hills, fantastic, weird, 

Mightily cragged and cleft — the white rock holds 

[165] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Gold in great veins ; sooth ! 'tis a land of gold. 
Ugambe — 'twas the Chief's name — made me learn 
How his gold-workers delved. A deep shaft sunk 
Some twenty cubits to the mother-bed, 
And there this cunning hoard of nature hid 
To tease and draw mankind ! I did descend 
And crept through cavernous ways and gloomy 

gates 
Till we were come to a great chamber hewn 
In the mid hill. There, lo ! all round about 
The soft gold glittered to the torches' flare 
Out of its milky stone : sometimes in films. 
As when they press the purple : sometimes flaked 
Like glass ; or spun like threads of silk ; or pouched 
Massive in pockets ; or in branching lines 
Like moss that grows in chinks, if moss were gold. 
This rock, wealth-bearing, patient hands break out 
And bring to air. There, slave-gangs set in rows 
Pound with hard stone on stone the veiny stufT, 
Crushing it small. This first they wash and sift 

[i66] 



THE FIFTH DAT 



For the great pieces ; afterwards they roast 
What's left in furnace till the gold runs clear 
Caked in the ash : so is their way with gold. 

Wherefore, great Lord ! because this thing is much, 
And maketh wealth of the world and pleaseth 

kings, 
And doth befit ev'n Pharaoh, it behoved 
To guard the prize for thee. King Suleiman 
Owned ships and men that brought him gold from 

Punt 

And peacocks out of Ophir, and fine gems. 

Thou, too, mayest have — shalt have — Lord of all 

Lords ! 

Thine Ophir in this region where we came 

Empty, and whence we journeyed, turning back 

After a six moons' sojourn, — rich enow 

To buy the fleets of Tyre, if 'twere thy will. 

For here the gold was dross ; the friendly folk 

Laughed at our lust for the pale yellow yield 

[167] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Which will not fashion head of spear, nor blade 
Of hunting-knife, nor wear a lifetime through 
As iron armlet doth or ankle ring ; 
And bore no worth they said, save to be soft 
In working and to take no rust. With that 
Gladly they bartered it for beads and cloth 
And whatsoever gear we had to give, 
Of Syrian, or Egyptian. Nay, for love 
Of Lady Nesta, and to honour guests. 
They did bestow with gentle show of pride 
Platters and bowls cast out of shining gold, 
Pouches and girdles, fillets, amulets, 
Neck-rings, and head-rings: so our caravan 
Marched seaward from the hills with twelve-score 

slaves 
Gold-laden, and another followed it 
Or ever we set sail; thus I did fill 
The Black Whale's hold with that rich ballasting 
From keel to floor. I sent thee back that ship 
So freighted as was never craft before, 

[168] 



"t H E F I F r H BAT 



Dunnaged and stowed with gold. Sothes had 

charge. 
I filled him with our rice and barley, raised 
In two crops by the river; bade him press 
Northwards for Suph, making his benches up 
With slaves of Sabi. " When thou seest," I said, 
*' The star of Ishtar lift i' the north anew 
And reachest where we crossed that ten days' main. 
Cleave to the coast till thou beest come to Suph ; 
Then enter by the island, and stand north 
Till Pharaoh learn of thee and thou canst void 
Thy cargo on the carpet of his throne." 
Thou knowest. King of Kings ! thy ship came home 
And Sothes stands beside thee, who did bring 
The Black Whale back, and from our silence, news. 

Moreover, that these opulent fields be kept 

Secure for thee and us, I made a pact, 

Solemnly sealed with strange and ancient rites — 

Confirmed by drinking blood and slaying goats — 

[169] 



THE VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

Whereby the golden hills devolve to thee 

Around the springs of Sabi. Thirty men 

Among the Tyrians, skilfullest to build, 

Stoutest to fight, best helps at every need, 

Joyous in dangers, eager for high deeds, 

I chose from out my rowers. These should take 

Wives of the country, raise their dwellings, till 

Sufficient earth for food — slaves serving them, — 

And of the thirty, under Hamilcar, 

Each should be captain over maniples 

Of three-score warriors, drawn from bravest blood 

Of Makalanga. Then, to make all sure, 

They must have fortalice to hold the hills 

And guard and delve the gold. I did ordain 

There should be reared — where the rocks favoured 

us 

And much fair water bubbled — structures twain 

Which the wise Hiram did devise and plan. 

Of these the foremost was a hold of war. 

Massive, impenetrable, made to bear 

— [170] 



<r H E FIFTH DAT 



All shock of battle, as the sea-cliff takes 

The battering waves and turns their idle dash. 

I bid them build it, where the broken crags 

Gave coign and traverse and good vantage ground, 

On forehead of a granite mountain scarped 

Three sides. Along the fourth, to rear a wall 

Shutting out all but birds. Within the wall 

The stronghold, circular, with rounded ramps 

Of hewn stone, laid ten cubits thick ; the doors 

Narrow, and giving entry by strait ways 

Where but one man could pass; and those strait 

ways 

So blocked with buttresses and ambuscades, 

With cunning corners, fighting-holes and pits ; 

So from the walls above commanded, that 

No foe could win alive from gate to fort, 

Or shun deaths showered upon him. In the midst 

The unfailing fount, good storage for the grain, 

Space for the men-at-arms, fuel for food, 

All deftly schemed. In time of peace my men, 

[171] 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Housed in Zimbabwe's groves, the guards at hand, 
Would dwell serene and win the gold. At war, 




Safe in their citadel, ten thousand foes 
Could count as ten. 



Beneath, on low^er slope, 

Wise Hiram drew for me a House of Gods — 

Ishtar's and Bel's — ; was to be built to lodge 

The Lords of Heaven most nobly; all of stone 

Heedfully shaped, like Babylonian bricks. 

Faultlessly squared ; was to be oval-framed, 

Cubits eight-score and eight the longer way; 

=^[172] — 



r H E FIFTH DAT 



Walls thick cubits fifteen, high, twenty-one ; 
And, crowning all the walls, should run a row 
Of Ishtar's birds cut of the soft green rock, 
With those high sacred pillars interplaced. 
Which mean the Sun, and Life, and Love, and 

Death 
And things men tell not of. Also those walls. 
Laid to a hair's breadth, fashioned close and fair. 
Nicely obeying what the Gods enjoin, 
Should so stand, pierced with window and with 

door, 
That at due time the Northern Stars we knew 
Should through each chink let shine their holy light 
On altar-slab and graven stele and floor; 
So that men mark the seasons, and the days 
Of fast and feast. And Hiram schemed to build 
Patterns upon the wall, with chosen stones 
To such a point and such; a fish-bone course 
Which meaneth what ye wist ; and on south-east 
The zigzag pattern, sign of Water Stars 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And of the Many-Breasted. These would show 
The Solstice, when the ray of rising sun 
Touched first this brick or that. Inside its walls 
The House of Gods should spread a spacious court, 
By narrow doors and by strait ways approached, 
Where, if he would, with five-score fighting men 
Hamilcar might withstand the land in arms ; 
And, if they would, in days of peace, the priests 
Might on due altars, and in close-shut shrines 
Pay Gods, and eke the Seven Nameless Ones 
Homage and worship. The sites we set ; 
Handselled the quarries ; hired the meaner sort 
To chip and square, for all must be dry work, 
No binding clay or lime, lest seeds blow in 
And saplings, rooting in the joints, should grow, 
Rending its face. But this when all is wrought 
Shall stand as the eternal mountains stand 
Unchanged, and tell the centuries to come 
How Hiram builded on Zimbabwe Hill. 

END OF THE FIFTH DAY 

[174] 



^ .^li 










XTbe Sixth Da^ 

Ithobaly reaching the world ^s €7id, 
A spacious harbour doth befriend ; 
Southward no 7nore, but Northward now 
Turneth his storm- tossed vessefs prow. 

LORY and length of days, Great King, to 
thee ! 
The High Gods give thee victory and 
peace 
And all thy heart's desires ! The ship I sent 
Came to thy coasts — her precious freight unspilt — 
After nine moons : so hadst thou tidings, Lord, 
Writ thee in gold from Ithobal, thy slave. 

I, with two galleys launched, my Ram and Dove, 
Stood southward yet again. Hiram abode 
To build, and Hamilcar to keep the guard ; 

While, for those thirty Tyrians sent ashore 

[175] 



rHE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

And lost ones in my crews by land and sea 

By water or in battle, by wild beasts, 

Or slain by sun, or sickly marish airs; 

As many from the native folk I took, 

Freemen and slaves ; well-moulded ones, enured 

To toil and trial. Some with Hanno filled 

The empty benches of the Ram ; and some 

Joined service in the Silver Dove. We quit 

The friendly river, well caparisoned, 

Stufifed to the wales with stores : sails renovate, 

Cordage new-coiled; masts, rigging, all a-taunt: 

And those brave spirits that did wend with me 

At this by danger's salt so seasoned down ; 

So wont to take the terror and the sport 

With equal mind that, if the end were death. 

Then death should be good port. The weaker 

ones. 

In such stout company, lacked time to fear : 

Sufficient if they followed Ithobal 

And Lady Nesta ; if their daily mess 

[176] 



THE SIXTH DAT 



Came warm and comforting when oars were 

ranged ; 
And on the deck or beach, in noisy dance, 
Their feet kept time to the drum. 

Yet we were come 
So far, Lord Pharaoh, that it frighted me ! 
What had befell the Sun ? Thy Spring on Nile 
Is Autumn at that bound : thy Winter here 
Shines Summer there : for this my thought was ripe. 
Well wot our Tyrian mariners that Bel 
Goes through his constellations, moon by moon. 
From Ram and Crab to Fishes. But, dread King ! 
Already at Zimbabwe, in its sky 
Of fiercest weather, overhead the Orb 
So swung that either shadow was not cast, 
Or cast to southward ; and when week by week 
My keels still ploughed those never-ending fields 
Of the wine-coloured main ; still clomb the slopes 

Of glassy waves, to plunge forever down 

[177] 



rHE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Through the sea-lace and spume ; still saw the shore 
Glide, ghostlike, shadowy, grey, interminable. 
Bound by its girdle of a beach, or walled 
With dreadful crags; and while the last stars 

dipped — 
Of those we knew — under the rim ; and stars 
Nameless, fresh to our eyes flashed into ken. 
The heart of this thy servant Ithobal 
Melted ofttimes to water. Twice and thrice. 
Lone on the poop, I beat my breast and cried : — 
" We come too far ! " 

But, never once dismayed. 

My Lady kept good courage. " Thou," she 

laughed, 

" Captain of all the Captains, sailest here 

Farther than what was Nesta's farthest ; yet 

Sound are thy Ships : the sky hath still its Sun, 

The winds come fair : thy willing rowers go 

Whithersoever thou dost steer. I saw 

[178] 



rHE SIXTH BAT 



Our Silver Dove of Ishtar on the stem 

Thrice stretch her bright wings in this morning's 

gold, 
As hungering for what glory never bird 
And never vessel found before. Sweet Lord ! 
Hold thy great heart ! The coast doth know itself ; 
Its simple people pass, repass and talk : 
Keep heart ! I have a thing to comfort thee. 
Less than five hundred leagues will bring us where 
The long shore bends ; and, trailing south no more, 
Goes by a mighty horn, a Cape of Storms, 
Laved with a wave that rolls from the World's End 
Westward beneath a fiat-topped mount, then turns 
Northward and north and north, thy homeward 

way." 

So sped wx onward all those weary leagues ; 
Now fanned by airs which hardly broke the blue. 
Now scourged by storms which rent the ocean 

floor, 

[179]= = 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

And drove its hissing hills, all flake and foam 
In headlong wrath. Anon, 'twas breath of Heaven, 
As if the Gods had thereabouts trooped down, 
By golden stairways of the clouds, to dwell 
'Midst their own weather in such Paradise 







Of dimpled sapphire wavelets, whose white lips 

Kissed the smooth Shore and jewelled her with 

shells. 

Then, whether it were life or fearful death 

Waiting beyond for us in that dropped veil 

Of the sea's distant purple none took heed. 

None scanted meal nor did forego his song, 

[1 80] 



rHE SIXTH BAT 



His dance and music : since if this were Fate 
Sweet were it so to end. Anon, 'twould seem, 
In tempest, or the terror of the surf 
Bursting beneath our lee — so close we saw 
Our grave-place in the rocks — as if Hope died 
In gloom behind us, and in face of us 
Despair did point to Hell. Yet not for that 
Was any oar-loom dropped : was any thigh 
Thrust at the bench-board with less manlihood. 
From chief to slave, ship-boy to timoneer. 
These gave their souls with me to what so keeps 
The souls of brave men safe. In pleasant times 
The songs that Egypt hears, or Sidon sings 
Kept our blades dancing. On the evil days 
When we must run for shelter, not the winds. 
Piping outside the reef where we would hide, 
Could howl my children's cheering down. 



All those five hundred leagues of unseen sea 



Thus, Lord, 
es of unsee 

[I8l]: 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 



In forty days thy galleys overpassed, 
Till, sailing free, a light air from the north, 
Daylight just dim, we see the unending coast 
Break to the right, away, far, far away: 
Ahead, no land at all. The wide sea rolls 
Steadfastly westward, in long hills and dales 
So that with steep ascent we climb, to glide 
By slope as steep into the trough of blue : 
So deep ship sees not ship until they ride 
Once again balanced on the curling crest. 
No land to south, nor east ; westward we spy 
White beaches and grey cliffs with hills behind 
And forests hanging in the clouds. All day 
The strong swell helps the wind to waft us on 
Till there was brought abreast a wall of cliff,* 
Dark-hued, three hundred cubits tall — a peak 
Pointing each flank. O Pharaoh ! now I know 
That rocky ramp with its twin peaks on guard 
Was of all Africa her utmost earth : 



* Cape of Good Hope. 
[182]= 



THE SIXTH DAT 



Was back-gate of the World ; was where to turn, — ■ 
If the Gods willed — to find a homeward way 
And come alive out of that nether death. 

Even as we drew inshore, the sun went down 
Far on our right : no man had seen that thing 
In Syria or in Egypt. Crouching low 
My grey-haired steersman hid his face and 

prayed. 
But Nesta, holding fast the golden charm 
Which helped her with her Gods, laughed low and 

said : — 

" Master ! we have out-travelled even Bel ! 

The Sun-God is more weary than thy ships : 

He sleepeth short of us. And see ! where stalks 

A tawny lion on yon grassy knoll 

Hanging above the surf ! Know ye that sign ? 

It is the Lord of Libya come to look 

On men that have a heart within their breasts 

Greater than lions." 

[183] 



"t H E VOYAGE OF I^HOBAL 

As she spake, the clouds, 

Gathering tumultuous o'er the distant ridge, 

Stooped and let out a blast from forth the West 

Full in our faces, driving down the swell, 

Tearing its grey crests off in seething spray. 

And with the wind the hail — great stones of ice — 

That pelted decks and scourged the smarting sea. 

And beat the billows flat, bringing amain 

A new fierce turmoil of such waves as seemed 

Each one a ruin. All our sails were furled ; 

Deck-hatches shut ; fast-sealed the rowing-ports ; 

While our two banks of Thalamites in turn 

Strained blades to keep us heading. If we 

broached. 

The seas must come aboard, the o'er-whelmed craft 

Must founder. Never saw thy servant yet 

A deadlier run of breakers ; by His name 

Who dwells at Ascalon, I did not hope 

To view another sun ; but — more to cheer — 

Myself I seized the steering oar and held 

[184] 



r H E SIXTH DAT 



As best I might the Silver Dove to the wind. 
Surely we had been lost, when Nesta plucked 
My sleeve, and pointed where aboard his Ram 
Good Hanno showed us safety. Not in vain 
Summers and winters long on the Mid Sea 




The salt had bleached his hair ; the savage deep 

Taught him its secrets. Axe in hand he cut 

His mast and gear away ; lashed round the wreck 

His anchor rope, and, casting overboard, 

Had veered the raffle forward through the waves, 

And making fast on the stem-head, he rode 

Secure by this sea anchor, whose defence 

[185] 



THE VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

Broke the rough brine and kept the gallant ship 
Steadfast to windward. We, too, likeways did, 
Cutting away our mast and launching it 
With sail and gear and rigging over side ; 
Till, like the Ram, at cable's-end the Dove 
Hung, plunging to the angry wash, sore tossed, 
But saved. Thus did we drift the wild night 

through, 
And all a dismal day, and that next night, 
Till morning brought us peace, with promise fair 
Of easy shelter; since a spacious bay* 
Opened its green arms for us to the left; 
Whereto, hacking away our wreck, we stood. 
Much labouring, for the sea ran strong ; and faint 
Were hearts and arms, yet life is sweet to save. 
And this my lady on the bench by me 
Plied the same oar-loom with her dark small 

hands, 
What time, with cries of joy, the two ships shot 

* Table Bay, 
[i86] 



THE SIXTH DAT 



Clear of the surge, under a shelving hill, 
Which shut us into quiet. 

'Twas a spot 
Stamped on the tablet of my soul by stress 
Of utmost peril finding end in peace. 
From head to head the gateway of the bay 
Spreads a large league. An island* to the east 
Sentinels that approach ; inside a plain 
Where one might build a stately city, King ! 
To keep the keys of all that Nether World. 
Beyond it soars aloft a mountain mass. 
Flat at the top like some prodigious roof, 
This side and that side ending suddenly 
With precipices sheer, which plunge adown. 
Till from their feet another rounded slope 
Rises this way and that. The northward spur 
Takes form as if a lion's head did lift 
From shaggy shoulders ; to the south the hill 

* Robben Island. 
[187] 



r H E VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Hath such a shape as shows, in chine and haunch, 

A couchant Hon. Far away are peaks 

With wooded uplands and deep valleys, decked 

By blossoming heaths, flame-coloured aloe-spears, 

And garlands of wild grape. The country folk. 

Simple and friendly, clad in skins or bark 

Gave us fair welcome. 'Twas their winter time; 

But the air mild and still, save when a cloud 

Gathered upon the Table Mount, whereat 

A savage west wind howled, and there would hap 

Tempest and hail. Well pleased, we did abide 

In port of that good hope ; and, from a wood 

Plucked straight-grown spars to make us masts 

again, 
And trimmed and fashioned these, and set them up 
Firm as before, using for stays and shrouds 
The twisted strips of hide cut in the green ; 
Made good our broken oars; recaulked our seams; 
The weary crews refreshed ; filled full anew 
The water-pots and meal-jars. Store was, too, 

[i88] 



THE SIXTH DAT 



Of dried meat and of honey. When Gods give 
They give with both hands filled. 

A year had fled 

And half a year, in sunshine and in storm, 

Great Pharaoh ! since we left thy sea of Suph. 

Here was the end of earth ! would the sea-road 

Lead homeward all the way to North and thee? 

Was there a westward path of unbarred main 

Like to that eastern path, which we might cleave 

And come to happy finish, and thy feet ? 

Or must we perish in the trackless deep 

And thou not know, and no man living hear 

Where in the dark Ithobal lost thy ships ? 

The shore-folk could not teach. Only they said 

Traders and tribesmen, wandering from the West 

Spake of blue sea, blue sea, always blue sea. 

And coasts that stretched and stretched to North- 

, ward. None 

In their frail shallops ever dared to round 

[189] 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

That neighbourhood cantle, where the rolHng 

South 
The roaring West encountered, and the tides 
Breasted so high they seemed to mock the hills. 
If we would die, 'twere best to wait a breeze 
Blows from the east when the great mountain doffs 
Its cap of clouds, and so steal out from clutch 
Of the sea-demons. Peradventure peace 
Might be upon us till the land was turned, 
And then that would befall which must befall. 

So we made sacrifice, and on a daw^n, 

All gold and saffron, let our painted sails 

Fill to a favouring wind, and driving safe 

Over smooth billows, ran the coast adown 

And made the headland well, and shifted course 

Straight for the North. Seven days the good 

breeze held; 

Seven nights the moon of Ishtar gleamed for us. 

Then, lacking water and our rowers spent, 

=[190] — 



THE SIXTH DAT 



Under an island green, and white, and red, 
Found we fair shelter. Sea-birds nested there : 
Strange breeds* with paddle wings and silken 

necks, 
Whose speckled eggs made the men pleasant feasts. 
And next came mists blotting out sea and land ; 
And next, I most remember one low point, 
Tree-fringed, which swarmed with apes; the furry 

folk 
Pelted us from the tree-tops with ripe nuts, 
Chattering vain war. A river, after that. 
So thronged with elephants browsing its banks. 
That 'twas as though the sandhills swayed and 

paced. 
Were we but hunters there was ivory 
To build a throne for Egypt. Then a streamf 
The folk named '' Golden Waters " ; here a bar 
Shut its wide reaches from the thundering main : 
So spread they to a vast lagoon where, sooth ! 

* Penguins. f Orange River. 

[191] 



r H E VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

All feathered folk of Earth did seem to dwell. 

For clouds the sky had fowls. They soared or 

swam, 

Or waded in the shallows, spearing fish, — 

Myriads and myriads : while upon the plain 

Those cattle of the Gods, — the dappled deer, — 

Were all the citizens. And, like the land 

Where man's foot cometh not, the seas hereat 

Swarmed with bright life : in the air the albatross 

Stretched wings to wind like two pale galley sails: 

Or skimmed with yellow webs from crest to crest. 

Or poised asleep in the scud. And, at a gut, 

Where breeze and current laid a course for us. 

Under a monstrous clifif, steep to the surf. 

We held all day a merry company 

Of racing dolphins, like black swine of the wave. 

At gambol in the green : such glee of life ! 

Such joyous pigs of Dagon, that I stayed 

The hand of one who aimed a shaft at them. 

And farther on, whole islands white as snow 

[192] - = 



"T H E SIXTH BAT 



With droppings of the sea-fowl. Then a ledge 
So thick with forms, half fish, half woman-wise, 
Sleek-headed, melon-breasted, with dark eyes 




Lustrous and soft, thou wouldst have thought 

them maids 
Gendered by Sea-Gods upon river-nymphs. 
Till the broad tails waved and they plunged, — the 

seals ! 

And nigh a bay — w^as called the Whale-Fish Bay — 

We passed an islet, one huge marble rock 

Hollow as is a temple-court, with halls 

And shrines and corridors and cloisters high. 

Filled with dim greenish light ; its walls and roofs 

=^[193]= =^ 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Carved by a thousand tempests into dome, 
Pinnacle, plinth, and ponderous architrave, 
Whereof the entrance was a gateway beamed 
By split slabs and a lintel ragged, vast ; 
The door-posts' weathered columns cut by waves 
Grand as thy Memphis. Into this the main. 
Pouring its billows, lashed the floor to foam ; 
Spurted in milky fountains through the clefts ; 
Streamed in wan cataracts from shelf and coign; 
All with such monstrous roar as if the Deep 
Came there to speak, and bid us stay our quest, 
With terrible commanding. 

Farther north 

We beached on the white hoi n of a wide bay. 

Where sand-banks spread, and coral rocks awash 

Broke the long swells on matted weed. She-whales 

Flocked there to calve. By Him of Gaza, Lord ! 

Rare sight it was to see those monstrous dams 

Shoulder the shallow water, sailing in 

[194]- = 



i: H E SIXTH BAT 



To bring to birth. No fish are these, O King ! 

No more than bat is bird because it flies ; 

No more than scaly crocodiles have fins 

Because they swim. We had a mariner 

Well seen in whales : a sailor oft on Suph 

And in the Midland Sea. He showed us how 

The Gods have framed Leviathan a beast, 

Albeit of the deep. These giant-shes 

Brought forth like women; suckled young at 

teats 
Down by the vent ; had nipples like a nurse ; 
And, so Bilhadad showed, because the calves 
Sucked ill in water, could at will force milk 
Into the youngling's throat. He taught us how 
The thick white fat was wrapped over the frame 
To keep the creature's blood at heating point ; 
And how the tail was set at end of chine, 
Athwart, not lengthwise, for the better speed 
In rising and descending. Also, King! 
These monsters, placable, find bloodless food 



:[I95]: 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

In what the deep hath smallest and least seen ; 
Since every wave is filled with forms minute — 
Shining by night — as is the air with gnats. 
These and the other unregarded orts 
Of Ocean's face the whale eats ; to that end — 
So crafty go the Gods, — Bilhadad showed, 
He hath no teeth, but in the cavernous mouth 
Ridges of bending bone, finished by shreds,* 
By strings, and fringes, flexed inside the lips 
To make the mouth all sieve. So will he gulp 
A billow in his jaws, and, closing them, 
Sift the brine forth by nostril and by lip, 
To gain a pouchful. Were their appetites 
Vast as their bulk, woe would it be, meseems, 
For weaker tribes. One great whale miscon- 
ceived 
My Silver Dove to be her cub, and rolled 
Motherly sides against us, breaking short 
A score of oar-blades. 

* Whalebone. 

[196] = 



THE SIXTH DAT 



North, — still north we sped 
With many a stay, till the '' black Cape "* was 

made, 
A dark rock jutting from a sandy neck. 
With friendly frith behind. Thence, past low 

woods 
And shores by long swells lashed, into a port 
Lobito named, where it was good to be. 
We go ashore for meat ; some ambuscade 
Brown reed-buck in the canes ; some, lance in hand, 
Follow the moist and perilous paths whereby 
The river-horses wend. Some haul the net 
Along the yellow sands, or bait great hooks 
To take the shark. Yet none for forest lore 
Or sylvan skill matched our bright Lady here. 
We, with a band, went inland, — three days* 

march — 
To spy the country or if trade might be. 
But naked was it all, barren and burned : 

* Cape Negro. 

=[197] : 



rHE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 



No life except the lizard's on the stone, 

The vulture's in the sky. At that third eve, — 

The path being lost, the water-bags all dry, 

Food failing and the sun at act to set, — 

My temper bent. " By Thammuz's blood ! " — I 

swore, 
" Ithobal is of stuff Gods use for fools 
Since, Nesta, he hath led thee and these friends 
To die a-thirst and hungry in the waste." 
On this she smiled. If one had Hghtly laughed 
At Ithobal in wrath, — one lip but hers, — 
Blood would have washed it out ; but not a whit 
Her dark eyes quailed as mine flung round to her. 
" Good Lord ! " spake she, " thy ships have girdled 

now 

Two parts, out of three, of Africa, 

And thou wilt knot the silver cincture tight 

At Pharaoh's foot-stool. Yet for all thy skill 

The treasures of my home thou readest not. 

See ! where we stand is meat and drink enough 

[1983 



r H E SIXTH DAT 



To have and spare, if well ye wot the signs, 

As little children do, finding the breast 

For all that lawns and sindons may conceal." 

Thereat she stepped three paces, touched with foot 

A glossy dark green creeper, flat of leaf, 

Tendrilled along a hollow in the sand. 

With knotty nuts upon it, half a score. 

" This is the nara/' quoth she, " dig and dig, 

And ye shall find sweet water at its roots. 

Half a bow's length beneath. Also its fruit 

Is comforting and good. But for more need, 

Look yonder. Master, where a thin line juts 

Against the golden sun. A branch ye thought? 

A spray of goat-grass? Nay, dear brave dull eyes, 

Yon is an estridge neck. I clap my hands. 

The loutish housewife rises and makes off. 

Who hath prepared the evening meal for us." 

She laughed and shouted loud ; the great bird starts, 

With fluttered plumes and cackling beak, and flies ; 

And while some dig the water, King ! we find 

=[199]= ~ 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

A score of great new ivory eggs, the clutch 
Of many a hen ; so sup on lavish fare. 

North again, north we row. The new stars sink; 
Old stars begin to rise ; past long white cliffs 
Athwart quick Bengo's mouth ; under a rock 
Yellow as sulphur, with black hanging woods, 
And then by shores, striped red and white, we win 
Into discoloured seas. A mighty flood 
Pours from the land, staining the blue waves brown, 
And bearing broken trunks and whirling round 
Patches of rooted grass and reeds. High up 
We see, inshore, long-reaching stretch of stream 
That shows no farther bank. It is the mouth 
Of a right mighty river ;* not thy Nile 
Hath nobler gateway, Pharaoh ! to the deep. 
At the point's hither side opens a cove 
Where turtles breed. We beach our ships i' the 
smooth 

* Congo. 
=[200] — : 



THE SIXTH BAT 



And pitch a camp. Presently flock the folk 
Naked, shock-headed, speaking words uncouth. 
Friendly but curious. Gondah trades with them. 
Cloth, and brass wire, and beads for kids, and meal. 
'Midst these a grey-haired wanderer from the 

waste — 
Beareth the Eastern face, — hath journeyed far, 
Knoweth the mighty stream and nameth it 
Enzaddi — " Mother of Waters," — saith 
It riseth out of great lakes far away, 
Bemba and Bangweolo — runneth vast, 
Full-volumed, fertilizing, rich with woods. 
Seven hundred leagues, and twice doth fling its bulk 
Down monstrous rock-walls. When this ancient 

spies 
The tribe-mark tinctured blue on Nesta's arm, 
Prone falleth he to earth, kisseth her foot, 
Saith in strange tongue words that well pleased the 

ear 
Of the listening Lady. " Truly he hath come," 



r H E VOYAGE OF IT H O B A L 

She whispers, '' from the East Sea to the West, 
His eyes have seen the breadth of Africa; 
A Makalanga too ! 'tis wonderful ! " 

That night, as many nights before, we sate 

Girt by a fence of thorns, in Hght robes wrapt, 

The camp-fires brightly burning, flinging sparks 

Into the murk, and lighting trees and tents, 

While the wide river and the meeting sea 

Made us a sleep-song. Other voices too 

The lonely Libyan night hath ; creatures wild. 

That hate the sun, make by the moon and stars 

Their hunting time. You heard the river-horse 

Splash in the reeds ; the owl hoot from his branch ; 

The grey fox bark ; the earth-bear whine and sniff ; 

The apes, — four-handed people of the wood — 

Fretfully chatter ; then the spotted dog 

Utter his devilish laugh, and the lynx scream, 

Till near at hand the lion, lord of beasts, 

Lays muzzle on the ground, and roars a peal 

— [202]— 



r H E SIXTH DAT 

Of angry thunder, rolling round the hills, 

Hushing the frighted wilderness. Far off, 

His neighbour lions catch the thunder up, 

And with fierce answers shake the shuddering 

ground. 
As so we lay with those rough voices ringed, 
The watch-fires gleaming back from the green eyes 
That showed and shone and vanished, Nesta raised 
Her eyelids from what seemed a dream, and 

asked : — 

" Know'st thou, my Master! what the lions say? 

They have been kings : they are the kings to-night ; 

All this is theirs ; the river and its reeds, 

The hills, the thickets, and the roaming game, 

The village people and their lives — all's theirs. 

And this dark world must listen when they speak. 

Will listen many an age. Yet it is spite 

Makes them to roar so bitter; centuries pass 

Like moons at last and after centuries 

The lions know that down this stream will come 

[203]= — : 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

A white man bringing to the darkness dawn 
As doth the morning star ; opening the gates 
Which shut my people in, till good times hap, 
When cattle-bells, and drums, and festal songs 
Of peaceful people, dwelling happily, 
Shall be the desert's voice both day and night : 
The lions know and roar their hate of it. 
Hark! Isf-a-la-ni! Ist-a-la-ni! cries 
The Marsh Hen : knowing what will come at last ; 
And wolves snarl — dreaming of ' the Stone- 
Breaker.' "* 

* Native name of Sir H. M. Stanley. 



END OF THE SIXTH DAY 



-[204]: 






Ube Scvcntb nriO Xast Dai^ 

Ithobalj braving dread and doubt 
Hath sailed all Africa about: 
The thirty-seventh moon doth bring 
The Tyrian crews to Egypfs King. 

AY the King live for ever ! Ithobal 
A little longer prays the royal ear 
That he may tell the wondrous finishing 
Of this great travel : how thy ships came home, 
Most Mighty ! to the land which sent them forth. 

Twenty-six moons had waxed and waned. 'Twas 

Bui, 

The third month, when we left Enzaddi's mouth. 

And once more followed wheresoever led 

That ceaseless coast. Too long it were to name 

Journey by journey, changeful stage by stage, 

What lands, what seas, unfolded from the void 

=[205]^ 



rHE VOYAGE OF I "T H O B A L 

Their new-shewn pictures; what strange changes 

fell; 
What sudden perils. Each day was a scroll 
With cares laborious and hard toils unsealed, 
Whereon the high Gods wrote that which they 

would. 

Yet with our vessels fresh-accoutred, gear 

Made good, sails mended, meal and meat in store, 

And those companion breasts tempered to brass 

By hardships and a hundred rescuings, 

Safe wended we, and fearless, all those leagues 

From the great river's mouth. Rose the Red Point, 

Past tall Zeudana's bluff; across a bay 

Where seven black rocks stand up, we spy a nook 

Cup-shaped, the crater of some fiery mount, 

Which burned itself to stillness ages gone. 

Where flame, and rage, and ravage, had been fierce, 

We lay embosomed, under white cliffs laced 

With tender film of ferns, and delicate buds, 

Purple, or gold, or rose, of climbing plants, 

[206] - 



SEVENTH AND LAST BAT 

Whereon birds, small as bees, sucked honey-blooms 
With long-curved bills: themselves finer than 

flowers. 
So painted and so gemmed. Thus, where had 

boiled 
The molten rock, and sulphurous fumes had 

belched, 
The sea lay tranquil as in mother's lap, 
Whom the babe sucks asleep : so doth the Deep 
Shift its large humours. Also, King ! I saw 
A marvel here. Who hath before us known 
A shellfish slay a man? The shore folk use 
In companies, or one by one, to search 
The coral-banks for food ; at low tide these 
Are live with lowly creatures of the deep. 
Sea-flowers, sea-worms, sea-slugs, and cuttle-fish; 
At flood the waves wash all. There is a shell * 
Twin-valved, prodigious, white, with fluted lips. 
Russet outside, hides in the bladder-weed ; 

* Tridacna Gigas. 

[207]- 



THE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

Clam-like, the body of it fleshy, strong, 

The cup a cubit broad. This thing lurks there 

With opened edge waiting what meat the spray 

Will waft it : fed or handled, it doth close 

With grip of iron jaw. We saw a wretch 

Lie drowned upon the reef, one black foot caught 

In the toothed shell ; the hapless carcase cast 

Limp on the rocks, like a brown sea-weed blade. 

He, wading to his shallop, planted step 

On the clam's shell, and this, grasping him hard 

Had chained him till the slow sea rose and choked. 

Later I spake with those wise in the ways 

Of coast and current ; people of the beach 

Who taught us we were come to where the shore, 

Not longer trending northward, turns and leads 

Straight towards the setting sun; seven hundred 

leagues 
Some did suppose, or five, or six, some said. 

Yet, if we chanced the fortune of good airs, 

[208]= 



SEVENTH AND LAST DAT 

And struck across, well-watered and well-stored, 

Rowing by night and day when fair winds failed, 

Either on high sea we should founder, lost; 

Or, by bold venture 'scape a two moons' toil, 

Skirting Biafra and deep-bayed Benin. 

Which, sooth ! we did ; first coming happily. 

At seven-score leagues, to a long island laid 

Over against Aranga — 'tis a stream 

Runs from the inner hills.* And yet anew 

We pushed forth hazarding, and crossed sea-wastes, 

Which in the hurricane heave mountainous. 

But now slept blue and smooth. Nearing that 

coast 
The blue waxed grey and brown; the white foam 

foul- 
Long ere the topmost distant peak was eyed — 
With flooding forth of some great streamf that sent 
The rains of half her Libya to the main 
By many a mouth. With the land-water blew 

* Cape Lopez. f River Niger. 

=[209]= = 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

The land-wind, and the muddied waves lapped low 
Across the face of Benin all the wa}^ 
To Eko Island.* 

Yet one marvel more 
I had foregone, Great Pharaoh ! to recount. 
Behold these hides which my slaves lay at foot 
Of thy royal seat, — skins brown and dun — we 

stripped 
The shaggy coverings from the strangest beast 
Thy servant's eyes have seen. Nigh to that 

stream — 
Zaire or Enzaddi — opens in the land 
A deep laguna, fenced afar with hills, 
And fed by water-ways, which wind and creep 
Through forests dark with giant trees, and hung 
From glade to glade with curtains of grey moss 
And snake-like climbing vines. In its dense shades. 
Lord of the gloom, there dwells a monstrous ape,t 

* Lagos. f Gorilla. 

=[2 lo] 



SEVENTH AND LAST BAT 

Ugly and dreadful, in his strength most fierce, 
But man-like, fashioned wholly as a man, 
A wide fiat face, small ears, a hairy crown, 




Nostrils of blackamoor, and human ways : 
Short-legged with mighty loins and arms that reach 
To touch his shin as he doth walk erect. 
For walk he doth, with woodland stafif in palm. 
Most like a savage forester ; the hand 
Short-thumbed, but framed to skilful purposes. 
Hath a so stubborn grip that he can grasp 
The python's throat and squeeze its life away 
Spite of its writhing coils ; or break a jaw 

[211] 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 

Of bounding leopard. In the tree he builds 

A nest of boughs ; there keeps his sylvan home, 

His one ill-favoured wife, children, and store 

Of forest fruit. Yet though the creature eats 

No food save roots and berries, not a beast 

So mad, so dangerous. The lion shrinks 

To cover, seeing on its hunting-path 

This '' Man of the Woods " approach, rough staff in 

hand, 
And huge arms aching for some foe to slay. 
The twain who wore these coats my comrades 

met 
Where no tree gave them refuge, so they fought 
Two against ten, and ere they yielded breath, 
Cracked the neckbone of one, and ripped up one 
Among my hunters, dying savagely 
With cries like wounded men. 

At Eko Isle 

Once more we saw the gem of Ishtar gleam 

[212] - ^= 



SEVENTH AND LAST DAT 

Above the marge, the North Star. Speeding 

thence, 

Through fair and foul we pass Whydah's lagoon ; 

Cast anchor in a river flowing down 

From Ningo Hill. Here are a savage folk, 

Dahoms and Ashantees, eating men's flesh ; 

Filling the drink-bowls of their gods with blood; 

Cities of skulls and slaughter. Joyfully 

We parted from the cruel land ; set course 

For Accra, for Amkwana; rock and bay 

Of hot Secondi, and the Three Point cape. 

Next the Assini stream with spacious lakes 

Behind its sands. Then ever westward came 

Long rampart of red clififs, Yawoda crag — 

Striped rose and white like a flamingo's wing — 

Jutting to sea. Here is the Ivory coast. 

Abode of elephants; at Nano town, 

Which hath its huts on bank of Berebi, 

Door-posts and lintels were of milky tusks, 

And tusks lay heaped in sheds, and tusks did mark 

[213]= 



r H E VOYAGE OF ir H O B J L 

One man's field from another's; these I deemed 

Were spoils of elephants which die of age. 

One lordly brute of the vast herds we spied 

Might sack and scatter Nano. Still our coast 

Went westward till we make the Cape of Palms* — 

Tree-capped, tied to the shore by thread of sand : 

Behind its groves a river good for rest. 

A strange lure cheated us in nearing. Grey 

The mist lay round the cape ; in its faint veil 

The rocks and reefs, the banks and beaches, 

hung. 
With trees and towns and hills in the still air. 
It was the lying light, the mirage ; such 
Mocks thirsty desert men, drawn from their path 
By vision of fair water, shadowing palms 
And men and temples. I had deemed all true 
Till Nesta said, " Have heed. Master ! of this 
At entering ; 'tis a trick of fiends who dwell 
In storm-clouds and the evil weather." 

* Cape Palmas. 
[214]= 



SEVEN'TH AND LAST BAY 

Now 
Once more the Ram and Dove upon our prows 
Looked homeward ; once more northerly we steer. 
By Monkey Island, and by Wappi Head, 
Wended we well to Butu, and a stream, 
Pobamo named, next Tembo, and some isles 
Green with bananas ; so by many a stage 
We sight the promontory, forest-clad 
With great hills piercing heaven ; 'tis the mount 
Of lions.''^ Northward of the dark green ridge 
Opens a stream, and I must enter there 
For that the Silver Dove hath sprung a leak. 
Yestereve and all night by some ill-hap 
Came in the sea, and soaked our grain, and 

swamped 
The forward hold, till half my oarsmen baled. 
And half were rowing. In the stream we find 
A shelving shore, and beached. 'Sooth! strange 

to see! 

* Sierra Leone. 
[215] 



rHE VOYAGE OF IT H O B J L 

It is a sword-fish that hath wrought us this, 

Nigh ruining our venture. Yea ! a fish 

Six cubits long that hath for nose a beak 

Bony, shaped Hke a sword, sharp like a sword 

And hard as tempered steel ; strong fins and tail 

That in its times of anger and attack 

Drive it like arrow through the waves. It hates 

The whale ; mistook us for its enemy ; 

And dealt us deadly thrust. The blade had gone 

Through half a cubit of fir plank and oak — 

Loosening a beam end — where the sea poured 

in. 
The fish had broken off ; his sword stood out 
A span clear in the hold. 

By Matakong — 

A lovely isle with sloping lawns and groves — 

We pass to Pongo, and the channel made 

By safe Arango. Next was Bulama 

And Jeba river ; then long stretch of sands 

[216] =^ 



SEVENTH AND LAST DAT 

To Kisamanze and the Gambia, 

By Dakar and Goree to a green cape — * 

Slopes from the sea-shore towards two rounded 

paps 
O'er-looking isle and bay. Here came thy ships 
Westernmost, Mighty Pharaoh ! of their road : 
Nothing lay west of us except a main 
Known only to the Sun, which dippeth there 
Under the World. And thence to Senegal 
And her white headland, f and red Bojador, 
Eastward the shore now bends. Cape Juby lifts 
A green hill, and a stream flows to the sea 
Beneath white banks. Onward by Mogador 
We mark huge Atlas rear his snowy neck 
To hold the sky aloft : this side and that 
The lean grey hills peer over to the brine 
To gaze on voyagers whose ships are come 
From other hills so far : from other shores 
Which watch the Day spring from another East. 

* Cape Verde. f Cape Blanco. 

=[217]=: 



THE VOYAGE OF ITHOBAL 



Then as I stood upon my steering deck 

Eyeing the bare crags pass, and new peaks spring 

Out of the blue, Nesta was by my side, 







And took my hand whispering : " Master ! I saw 
Good omen at the dawn. KneeHng to pray, 
When the first gold lit on Astarte's bird 
Which is upon our stem, I marked her stretch 
Her silver wings to all their glittering length. 
And arch her shining neck, and utter low 
The love-note of a Dove ; I think she hears 
Some home sounds in the air, or seeth that 

Which promiseth us rest." Even as she spake, 

[2 1 8] =^ 



SEVENTH AND LAST BAT 

What mark I ? On the left two pointed hills, 
Facing them, seven low tops ; and in their front 
A black cliff* rising from the rippled blue, 
Which suddenly is narrowed so that land, 
To left as well as right, hangs in the sky, 
A violet film : a film which gathers form, 
Deepens to green and purple, and then grows 
A huge rock,t like a couching lion, set 
Over against the cliff. I know ! I know ! 
Here is the Ocean-Gate ! Here is the Strait, 
Twice before seen, where goes the Middle Sea 
Unto the Setting Sun and the Unknown — 
No more unknown. Ithobal's ships have sailed 
Around all Africa. Our task is done ! 
These are the Pillars ! this the Midland Sea ! 
The road to Tyre is yonder ! Every wave 
Is homely. Yonder, sure, Old Nilus pours 
Into this sea the Waters of a World, 
Whose secret is his own, and thine and mine. 

* Cape Spartel. f Gibraltar. 

=[219] 



THE VOYAGE OF I "T H O B A L 

Great Lord ! no need to tell thee how we came 

By coasts familiar, and by well-tried paths, 

Quit of our quest. Thirty-five moons had waned 

Since we sailed forth of Suph. My two brave ships 

Kept the sea safe. The third, if the Gods pleased. 

Deep ballasted with gold, was back with thee. 

Out of my sixteen-score of gallant souls 

There lacked some five-score, lost by land or sea, 

In battle slain, or torn by prowling beasts, 

Or dead by evil airs ; and one I slew. 

The traitor Nimroud. Of our native aids 

The most are lusty, well-contented, free. 

Glad to be part of this high enterprise, 

And see the great new world. But most I bless 

The holy Gods above and my fair Star, 

Because I carry back, unharmed, serene, 

Radiant with joy at this our victory 

And thine, O King of Kings ! her who was Life 

And Soul, and Guide, and Good of all we did : 

My Lady Nesta of the noble heart. 

— [220]: — 



SEVENTH AND LAST DAT 

Ah ! like to one who dreams that he must die, 
And waking finds him at a golden feast ; 
Or like to one whose hapless eyes have lost 
The lovely light of day, when sudden gleam 
Of the world's joy and glory comes again. 
And all his darkness dies; so was it now. 
Great Pharaoh ! with thy servants, day by day, 
Conning the happy sea-signs. What to us 
Any more irked the straining at the oar. 
The narrow bed, the hard-worn plank, the toil 
To beach and unbeach? In our ragged sails 
Flapped triumph : in our oar-ports, worn to gloss 
By oar-looms grinding through five thousand 

leagues, 
Shone pride. My merry rowers loved the ships 
So staunch, so faithful, and so friendly grown — 
Their good sea-houses. Pipe and drum kept time 
More lively than before to the light song 
Of Thalamite and Zeugite, as we skimmed 
Over the autumn w^aters to that mouth, 

==[221]. - 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Where thy broad Nilus voids his western wave ; 
And battered, torn and lean, but jubilant, 
Joyous, and eager for the grace of this — 
To see thy face and kneel before thy feet, 
And lay thee, for thy favour and thy trust. 
The Secret of the Unknown Earth made known. 
For this we did rejoice : for this are here. 



All this did Hodo with a heedful pen, 
On the papyrus write, finishing : — 

Then 
On ending of the seventh day of the story 
Our Lord the King^ sitting in state and glory ^ 
Rose from his throne^ and in his robe and crown^ 
With gentle smiling majesty came down. 
Before him on their faces that good day 
Ithobal and his people lowly lay^ 
The Lady Nesta and his Captains two^ 
: [222] 



SEVENTH AND LAST BAT 

And in a ring behind their sea-stained crew : 

And yet behind^ the negroes and the slaves^ 

While on the stones their bows and spears and glaives^ 

Rusted in battle^ lay ; with wild-beast hides 

And bars of gold and pearls^ and what besides 

Their sea spoils were. And our Lord Pharaoh laid 

IthobaV s head upon his breast., and said : — 

^^Ithobal., Son of Magon ! for thy King., 

Lo ! thou hast wrought a wondrous famous things 

Vaster than victories ; I name thee chief 

Of all my navies .^ and I give thee fief 

Of lands along my Nilus., grove and field.. 

Such as shall royal wealth and greatness yield i 

As many schcenes as on the dreadful sea 

Thou hast accomplished of leagues for me.^^ 

Then did our gracious Lord raise by the hand 

The lady., speaking soft: *-^JVe understand 

Thy wisdom., Daughter I and thy work and worth ; 

Thou art not of our Egypt by thy birth., 

But shalt be., for thy deeds., and by my grace 

Princess and Priestess in a chosen place: 

I make thee Lady hence of Amen-ru ; 

Thine now the shrine., and thine its revenue. ' ' 

=[223] ====== 



THE VOYAGE OF I T H O B A L 

Afterwards many a gift with liberal word 
Amongst those others did our mighty Lord 
Bestow; and bade Aahmes — Chamberlain — 
Pour largesse for them^ gold and robes and grain ^ 
And palace meats for life ; the slaves set free ; 
Hanno and Sothes^ officers to be ; 
Handah and Gondah by rich boons repaid ; 
A house and dowry for each faithful maid^ 
Asenath and her fellow. There withal 
A bounteous feast was set in Pharaoh"* s hall; 
And all the city kept high revelry 
Till the moon clomb into the starry sky. 



(nesta is heard singing) 

Under Astarte^s moon^ 
At the soft nighf s silvery noon 
Sleep eth my city of Neith^ 
The city of Pharaoh slumber eth ; 
The palms are like columns black 
With the dark-blue heaven at their hack^ 
And the shadows of porch and wall 

:[224] 



SEVENTH AND LAST BAY 

On the porphyry pavements fall 

Like purple carpets of silence. No lack 

Of joy In the whit e-w ailed street 

Where townsman and kinsman meet : 
And the houses are busy with what they say 
Of the marvellous^ glorious., goodly array 

JVhen Ithobal stood before the Throne 

And for seven days opened a world unknown. 
This marvellous tale of the Far-away 
And the secrets of Gods all shown. 
In his palace Lord Pharaoh is glad 
For the splendour of this gain had. 
In their huts the people are proud 
For the fame of this deed., long and loud.. 
Which shall make them renowned alway. 

In harbour the galleys lie 

Safe under the spangled sky ; 

Each weary sea-worn keel 

No longer doth fret ^ or feel 
The smiting wave and the mournful sigh 

Of the tempest which gathers to wreck. 

Steady and smooth is each deck ; 
The tired sails sleep., and the painted eye 



rHE VOYAGE OF I r H O B A L 

On each red prow is at rest. 

For all is come to the best 
And no more dangers to search and spy. 

The oars themselves seemed to keep 

A pleasure and peace in their sleep 
As the moonbeams shine on the glistening oar-ports nigh. 

And /, happy Nesta^ the while 

Sit in the sight of Nile ^ 
In the marble temple of Amen-ru : 
For I am the priestess^ and what I do 

TVith the lands and temple and town 

Is done henceforth with mine own. 

And IthobaV s head is on my lap ; 

The Gods have given good hap ; 
I am here with my Lover and Lord and King, 
And our tale to the si strum I sing; 

There shall never be nobler told or shown; 

For now are the Strange Seas known, 

THE END * 

W 18 89 '^ 










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